Triton
Triton is Planet Neptune's largest moon.[1] It is one of the largest moon's in the Solar system. It is smaller than Luna, Planet Earth's moon, smaller than Titan, Planet Saturn's largest moon, smaller than Ganymeded, Io, and Europa, Planet Jupiter's largest moons, but it is larger Pluto's largest moon, Charon, and is larger than Ceres, the largest asteroid.
The outer planets are orbited by moons believed to be original moons, that formed with their planets, and moons believed to have been captured asteroids, comets or other objects. Some captured moons have retrograde orbits. Triton is the only large moon to have a retrograde orbit, and is believed to be an object captured from the Kuiper Belt.[1]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1
"Triton". NASA Science. 2017-11-21. Archived from the original on 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of years ago. It shares many similarities with Pluto, the best known world of the Kuiper Belt.