Loading the simulation…

A Journey to the End of Time

The Solar System in 3D, in real time

A simulation of the Solar System driven by real ephemerides. The Sun, the planets, Pluto and the major moons, space probes, the International Space Station, nearby stars and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way are where they really are at the chosen moment. You can run time from 1700 to 2100, fly from one object to another and look at the sky from anywhere on Earth.

Triton

Moon of Neptune

Facts

Mean diameter
2705 km
Mean distance from the planet
354,800 km
Orbital period
5.88 days, backwards
Discovery
William Lassell, 1846

Triton is Neptune's large moon: the only large moon in the Solar System that circles in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. It is probably a Kuiper belt object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of years ago.

It is one of the coldest objects in the Solar System, at −235 °C on the surface, yet in 1989 Voyager 2 discovered active geysers there.

William Lassell discovered it on 10 October 1846, just 17 days after Neptune was found. It is named after the son of Poseidon, the Greek god who corresponds to Neptune.

Sources