The high plains found on Triton's eastern hemisphere, such as Cipango Planum, cover over and blot out older features, and are therefore almost certainly the result of icy lava washing over the previous landscape. The plains are dotted with pits, such as Leviathan Patera, which are probably the vents from which this lava emerged. The composition of the lava is unknown, although a mixture of ammonia and water is suspected. [7] The orbital properties of Triton were already determined with high accuracy in the 19th century. It was found to have a retrograde orbit, at a very high angle of inclination to the plane of Neptune's orbit. The first detailed observations of Triton were not made until 1930. Little was known about the satellite until Voyager 2 flew by in 1989. [7]

Surface gravity derived from the mass m, the gravitational constant G and the radius r: G m r 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {Gm}{rDue to constant erasure and modification by ongoing geological activity, impact craters on Triton's surface are relatively rare. A census of Triton's craters imaged by Voyager 2 found only 179 that were incontestably of impact origin, compared with 835 observed for Uranus's moon Miranda, which has only three percent of Triton's surface area. [70] The largest crater observed on Triton thought to have been created by an impact is a 27-kilometer-diameter (17mi) feature called Mazomba. [70] [71] Although larger craters have been observed, they are generally thought to be volcanic. [70] Library used throughout SCALE that provides individual nuclides; elements with tabulated natural abundances; compounds, alloys, mixtures, and fissile solutions commonly encountered in engineering practice Main article: Atmosphere of Triton Artist's impression of Triton, showing its tenuous atmosphere just over the limb. Triton's south polar region is covered by a highly reflective cap of frozen nitrogen and methane sprinkled by impact craters and openings of geysers. Little is known about the north pole because it was on the night side during the Voyager 2 encounter, but it is thought that Triton must also have a north polar ice cap. [44] Temperature correction, resonance self-shielding, and flux weighting to provide problem-dependent microscopic and macroscopic multigroup cross section data integrated with computational sequences, but also available for stand-alone analysis

All the geysers observed were located between 50° and 57°S, the part of Triton's surface close to the subsolar point. This indicates that solar heating, although very weak at Triton's great distance from the Sun, plays a crucial role. It is thought that the surface of Triton probably consists of a translucent layer of frozen nitrogen overlying a darker substrate, which creates a kind of "solid greenhouse effect". Solar radiation passes through the thin surface ice sheet, slowly heating and vaporizing subsurface nitrogen until enough gas pressure accumulates for it to erupt through the crust. [7] [46] A temperature increase of just 4 K above the ambient surface temperature of 37K could drive eruptions to the heights observed. [59] Although commonly termed "cryovolcanic", this nitrogen plume activity is distinct from Triton's larger-scale cryovolcanic eruptions, as well as volcanic processes on other worlds, which are powered by internal heat. CO 2 geysers on Mars are thought to erupt from its south polar cap each spring in the same way as Triton's geysers. [62] Recent nuclear decay data, neutron reaction cross sections, energy-dependent neutron-induced fission product yields, delayed gamma ray emission data, neutron emission data, and photon yield data

Please View The Video Below

Polar cap, plains and ridges [ edit ] Triton's bright south polar cap above a region of cantaloupe terrain Before the flyby of Voyager 2, astronomers suspected that Triton might have liquid nitrogen seas and a nitrogen/methane atmosphere with a density as much as 30% that of Earth. Like the famous overestimates of the atmospheric density of Mars, this proved incorrect. As with Mars, a denser atmosphere is postulated for its early history. [72]