
Moons of Neptune - Wikipedia
An annotated picture of some of Neptune's many moons as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright blue diffraction star is Triton, Neptune's largest moon; while Hippocamp, its smallest regular moon, is too small to be seen. The planet Neptune has 16 known moons, which are named for minor water deities and a water creature in Greek ...
Triton (moon) - Wikipedia
Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be rounded under its own gravity and hosts a thin, hazy atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit—revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation—the only large moon in the Solar System to do so.
Triton - NASA Science
Nov 3, 2024 · Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of …
Neptune Moons Facts - Science@NASA
Jan 17, 2025 · Triton (not to be confused with Saturn's moon, Titan), is far and away the largest of Neptune's satellites. Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper (for whom the Kuiper Belt was named) found Neptune's third-largest moon, Nereid, in 1949.
Neptune Moons - Science@NASA
Jan 29, 2025 · Neptune has 16 known moons. English merchant and astronomer William Lassell discovered the first and largest moon – Triton – on Oct. 10, 1846, just 17 days after a Berlin observatory discovered Neptune. We don't know if Lassell had a celebratory beverage after he discovered Triton, but beer helped make the finding possible.
14 Neptune Moons Names, Number, and List - Planets Education
Neptune is the farthest planet of our solar system and it has 14 known moons. In the 14 Neptune Moons, Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. The first discovered Neptune moon was ‘Triton’ (in 1846), whereas in 2013 astronomer ‘Mark R. Showalter’ discovered the …
Moons of Neptune | Table, List, Year Discovered, & Facts
Neptune is the planet in the solar system that is farthest from the Sun; it has 14 known moons. The largest by far is Triton, which is nearly the size of Earth’s Moon. Triton is the only large moon of the solar system that travels around its planet in retrograde fashion; that is, it orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of the planet’s ...
In Depth | Triton – NASA Solar System Exploration
Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of years ago.
Triton, Neptune's largest moon | The Planetary Society
Triton, the largest of Neptune’s 14 known moons, gets 900 times less sunlight than Earth, and much of that light reflects off the icy world’s surface. This makes Triton one of the chilliest places in the solar system, with temperatures that plunge to …
Triton | Facts & Composition | Britannica
Jan 20, 2025 · Triton, largest of Neptune’s moons, whose unusual orbital characteristics suggest that it formed elsewhere in the solar system and was later captured by Neptune. It was discovered by the English astronomer William Lassell in October 1846, only a few weeks after the discovery of Neptune itself.