Monday, October 22, 2018

Neptune and its moon Triton



-  2139 -  Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun in our Solar System.  It is cold out there.  Neptune’s diameter is 3.8 times larger than Earth’s.  Its mass is 17 times larger.  Neptune takes a long time to circle the Sun, 164.8 years.  Triton is nearly as large as our Moon , about 80%.   It has a near circular orbit around Neptune except it is orbiting backwards to Neptune’s rotation. 
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----------------------------------  2139  -  Neptune and its moon Triton
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-  That lucky ol Sun, got nothing to do but to roam around heaven all day.  Roaming in circles around the Sun are 4 rocky planets and 4 giant gaseous planets.  and, there are at least 4 Dwarf Planets as well.
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-  Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are the 4 rocky planets.  Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the 4 giant gaseous planets.  Pluto, Sedna, and more to be discovered are the farthest Dwarf Planets outside the orbit of Pluto.  Ceres is the Dwarf Planet in orbit within the  Asteroids Belt between Mars and Jupiter. 
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-  This Review is about the planet Neptune and its moon Triton.
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-  Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun in our Solar System. at the edge of our solar system 2.75 billion miles from Earth.   It is cold out there.  Neptune’s diameter is 3.8 times larger than Earth’s.  Its mass is 17 times larger.  It has almost the same tilt on its axis as Earth does, 29.6 degrees versus 23.45 degrees.  Neptune takes a long time to circle the Sun, 164.8 years.
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-  There are at least 166 moons in the Solar System and Neptune has 13 of them.  Our Moon is the one closest to the Sun and Neptune’s moons are the ones farthest from the Sun.   5 of its moons are smaller, less than 100 miles diameter.  5 of the moons are irregular, outer moons that are smaller still, less than 34 miles diameter.  The 3 larger moons are orbiting in the middle:
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--------------------  Proteus  -------------  260 miles diameter
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--------------------  Triton  --------------  1,680 miles in diameter
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-------------------   Nereid  ---------------  212 miles in diameter.
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-  Triton is nearly as large as our Moon , about 80%.   It has a near circular orbit around Neptune except it is orbiting backwards to Neptune’s rotation.  It is obviously a captured moon about the size of the Dwarf Planet Pluto.  It is the only large moon in our Solar System the flies around backwards.
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-  Triton’s backward orbit is mathematically explained as the Conservation of Angular Momentum.  It starts with a binary system, Triton and some companion, orbiting each other, coming close enough to Neptune for Triton to be captured in its backward orbit.  The orbiting companion with Triton would get slung out in the equal and opposite direction to preserve the system’s angular momentum.
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-  Triton orbits Neptune is just 5.88 Earth days.  It is in a synchronous orbit like our Moon always facing the planet.
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-  Triton has active eruptions and geysers on its surface.  The cold venting gas appears to be nitrogen mixed with a little dust  that freezes when it falls back to the surface.  The source of the heat to produce these gases is unsolved.  But, there are volcanoes and vents being created somehow below the surface.
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-  Triton is the coldest place any spacecraft has visited.  Nitrogen geysers and water ammonia volcanoes and the moon’s high density may indicate a large rocky core with enough radioactivity to keep it warm.  Neptune has an axis tilt but no seasonal changes because the internal warmth keeps the surface the same temperature, cold.
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-   This active cyrovolcanism puts Triton is a select group of satellites in company with Europa and Enceladus.
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-  The Voyager spacecraft came within 3,075 miles above Neptune's north pole.  It discovered 6 new moons orbiting Neptune.  It discovered Neptune's magnetic pole misaligned with its rotational pole.  This causes extreme variations in the magnetic field as the planet rotates.
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-  Science is not sure what causes Neptune's magnetic field  It does produce an aurora that occurs not just at the poles but scattered  across Neptune's entire upper atmosphere.
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-  Neptune is so cold the same cloud layers we see on Jupiter and Saturn would be buried  too deep inside the atmosphere for us to see on Neptune.   What we do see are clouds made of flakes of methane snow.  Methane can condense in the very cold upper atmosphere.  It is what causes the blue colors.  Methane gas absorbs the red light allowing only the shorter wavelength, blue light to penetrate to the level where the clouds exist.
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-  The highest hill on Triton is only 3,000 feet.  There is no evidence of any type of tectonic activity.  The terrain rises from oozing water-ammonia mix.  Over large areas the depressions and fissures repeat themselves, each some 20 miles across, making the surface look like the surface of a cantaloupe. 
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-  Inside the inner moons Neptune has rings but they have dusty  regions that make them appear as partial rings when viewed from Earth.  The blue color certainly suggests how cold it is.  You would turn blue too if you lived there.
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-  Voyage spacecraft continues to measure magnetic fields, charged particles, plasma density and more as it cruises to the boundaries of our solar system. It takes 5 hours for a radio signal to reach back to Earth. It took 28 years for the spacecraft to reach there.
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-  October 22, 2018.       1360 >>  1370
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 ---------------------   Monday, October 22, 2018         -------------------------
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