Difference between revisions of "Triton"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
(New page: '''Triton''' is the largest moon of Neptune. It is notable as the only large satellite in our solar system to circle is planet in a retrograde manner, that is, the opposite directi...) |
(image) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | [[Image:Triton.gif|right|thumb|Triton, the largest moon of Neptune]] | ||
| + | |||
'''Triton''' is the largest moon of [[Neptune]]. It is notable as the only large satellite in our [[solar system]] to circle is planet in a retrograde manner, that is, the opposite direction that its planet rotates. Its diameter is 2700 km, that is, about 1678 miles, which makes it smaller than [[Earth]]'s [[moon]]. It orbits Neptune once about every six days, and due to its inward spiral, would be destroyed by crossing inside Neptune's [[Roche limit]] (that is, the distance from a planet within which a moon would be broken up by gravitational forces) in about 100,000 years. | '''Triton''' is the largest moon of [[Neptune]]. It is notable as the only large satellite in our [[solar system]] to circle is planet in a retrograde manner, that is, the opposite direction that its planet rotates. Its diameter is 2700 km, that is, about 1678 miles, which makes it smaller than [[Earth]]'s [[moon]]. It orbits Neptune once about every six days, and due to its inward spiral, would be destroyed by crossing inside Neptune's [[Roche limit]] (that is, the distance from a planet within which a moon would be broken up by gravitational forces) in about 100,000 years. | ||
Revision as of 19:35, October 28, 2007
Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. It is notable as the only large satellite in our solar system to circle is planet in a retrograde manner, that is, the opposite direction that its planet rotates. Its diameter is 2700 km, that is, about 1678 miles, which makes it smaller than Earth's moon. It orbits Neptune once about every six days, and due to its inward spiral, would be destroyed by crossing inside Neptune's Roche limit (that is, the distance from a planet within which a moon would be broken up by gravitational forces) in about 100,000 years.
References
John Gribbin, Companion to the Cosmos (Little, Brown & Company, 1996)