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Mars Base

Triton: A subsurface ocean? - 0 views

phys.org/...9-triton-subsurface-ocean.html

sibyte62 Tritan

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Neptune's largest moon Triton is most likely a captured Kuiper Belt Object. The capture of icy Triton and the subsequent taming of its orbit likely led to the formation of a subsurface ocean through tidal heating. New research suggests that this ocean could still exist today.
  • much about Neptune's largest moon still remains a mystery
  • Voyager 2 flyby in 1989 offered a quick peak at the satellite, and revealed a surface composition comprised mainly of water ice
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • also had nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide
  • density is quite high, it is suspected that it has a large core of silicate rock
  • possible that a liquid ocean could have formed between the rocky core and icy surface shell
  • Triton has a unique property among large solar system moons; it has a retrograde orbit
  • planets and their moons must also orbit in this same direction
  • Planets form from a circumstellar disc of dust and gas
  • These orbits are known as prograde
  • retrograde orbit of Triton means that it most likely did not form around Neptune.
  • Triton likely originated in the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune, and was sent hurtling inwards until it was captured by Neptune's gravity
  • Directly after capture, the moon would have been in a highly elliptical, eccentric orbit
  • This type of orbit would have raised large tides on the moon, and the friction of these tides would have caused energy to be lost
  • energy loss is converted into heat
  • melt some of the icy interior and form an ocean beneath the ice shell
  • energy loss from tides is also responsible for gradually changing Triton's orbit from an ellipse to a circle
  • there
  • also radiogenic heating. This is heat that is caused by the decay of radioactive isotopes within a moon or planet, and this process can create heat for billions of years
  • Radiogenic heating contributes several times more heat to Triton's interior than tidal heating
  • this heat alone is not sufficient to keep the subsurface ocean in a liquid state over 4.5 billion years
  • One model of Triton’s interior. 70 to 80 percent rock (1), with the remainder being water ice (2) and an outer layer of methane and nitrogen ice (3). This is also believed to be the general interior configuration for the ice dwarf Pluto. Credit: Wikipedia
  • The exact point in time when Triton was captured by Neptune, along with the length of the time it took the orbit to become circularized are unknown
  • orbit is currently almost exactly circular
  • the exact size of Triton's rocky core is unknown
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