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Jump37of 100 · 4,370 M km from Earth

Triton: the moon that goes backwards

Triton, a moon of Neptune, orbits backwards, has geysers at −235 °C and may one day break up near Neptune. Facts with their sources.

Triton, a pale moon in pinkish and greenish tones, in a Voyager 2 mosaic
Image: NASA/JPL/USGS · original

Curious facts

  1. It goes backwards

    It is the only large moon in the Solar System that orbits its planet in the opposite direction to the planet’s spin. Most likely it was a Kuiper Belt object that Neptune captured with its gravity millions of years ago. 1

  2. Geysers at −235 °C

    It is 2,700 km across and its surface sits at −235 °C. Even so, in 1989 Voyager 2 saw active geysers: columns of dark material about 8 km high, with clouds drifting downwind for more than 100 km. 12

  3. It is closing in on Neptune

    Because it orbits backwards, tides slow it down and bring it slowly closer to Neptune. According to a 1989 model, in about 3.6 billion years it would get so close that the planet’s gravity would break it apart, possibly into a ring. 3

Triton in Orbit

In the game, Triton is jump 37 of the route, 4,370 M km from Earth. Its logbook card says:

Logbook · Jump 37

Orbits backwards; Neptune probably captured it

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What Orbit is like

Sources

  1. NASA, Triton. science.nasa.gov/neptune/moons/triton
  2. Soderblom et al., Science (1990). pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70015940
  3. Chyba, Jankowski and Nicholson, A&A 219 (1989). ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19890064536

Checked between 8 and 11 October 2026.

Image: NASA/JPL/USGS · original