How to catch a Dwarf Planet -- Triton MM#3
If Neptune didn't catch Triton we might have another Dwarf Planet in our Solar system -- maybe even another Planet or double system. We show how this could have happened. Ok, Moon May is over....
==========
The 14 moons of Neptune are a strange bunch.Most of them are small potato shaped pieces of ice and rock.Some are so far away from Neptune that they need 29 years to circle Neptune once.Almost all of them are asteroids trapped by Neptune's gravity.99.5% of all the mass around Neptune is concentrated in Triton.It's the 7th biggest moon, and more massive than all other known moonsin the solar system that are smaller than itself combined.Its surface area is about as big as the mainland of Russia and Australia together.Also, Triton is one of only four objects in the solar system that we know is geologically active.Triton orbits Neptune in the 'wrong' direction, against the rotation of Neptune,which is unique in our solar system fo...
==========
The 14 moons of Neptune are a strange bunch.Most of them are small potato shaped pieces of ice and rock.Some are so far away from Neptune that they need 29 years to circle Neptune once.Almost all of them are asteroids trapped by Neptune's gravity.99.5% of all the mass around Neptune is concentrated in Triton.It's the 7th biggest moon, and more massive than all other known moonsin the solar system that are smaller than itself combined.Its surface area is about as big as the mainland of Russia and Australia together.Also, Triton is one of only four objects in the solar system that we know is geologically active.Triton orbits Neptune in the 'wrong' direction, against the rotation of Neptune,which is unique in our solar system fo...
