Triton

Triton — moon orbiting Neptune, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

Neptune’s stolen moon: a captured Kuiper Belt object orbiting backwards, with nitrogen geysers erupting through pink ice. It will one day spiral in and be torn into rings.

Radius
1,353.4 km
Orbit
355k km from Neptune
Period
5.88 days — retrograde
Orbit
Retrograde — it orbits backwards
Origin
A captured Kuiper Belt world
Geysers
Nitrogen jets at −235 °C

Seeing Triton in real time

Cosmoscope puts Triton at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far Triton is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place Triton where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.

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