Glossary term: Triton
Description: Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune. It is larger than Pluto, and in fact, because of the unusual properties of its orbit and from what we know of its composition, Triton may well be a dwarf planet captured by Neptune. Triton has an icy surface, with water ice covered by a layer of frozen nitrogen, surrounding a mostly rocky core. Voyager 2, so far the only space probe to visit Triton, discovered that the moon is geologically active, with geysers blowing out nitrogen gas, and very probably with ice volcanoes ("cryovolcanoes") – analogous to Earth's volcanoes, but with water and ammonia instead of liquified rock.
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Related Media
Neptune’s Moon Triton Fosters Rare Icy Union
Caption: An image of Neptune's moon Triton taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. This image covers the south pole region of Triton. Triton's surface is covered by an icy mix of frozen nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide. Below the surface some of these compounds are thought to be in a liquid state. These liquids can burst out of the surface through geysers. These geysers produce the dark streaks seen in this image.
Credit: NASA/JPL
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License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
