Neptune's largest moon, Triton, actually came from the depths of outer space in the distant past. Scientists managed to find out what this strange object really is, so unlike its counterparts.
Astronomers have long suspected that the huge moon Triton was in fact an "alien" that invaded Neptune's orbit. Recently, they finally managed to calculate what the other moons of this planet looked like before the invasion of their fellow. All other gas giants in the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus) have similar lunar systems. In each of them, the mass of the planet is about 10,000 times the mass of the moon. For the most part, each planet has several small moons orbiting in the same direction as it.
However, Neptune is different from its kind. Its lunar system consists of several tiny moons that either circle extremely close or are far apart. In addition, there is a huge Triton, which also rotates in the opposite direction. Is it strange? Sure!
Elephant in a china shop
Robin Canup at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado and Raluca Rufu at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used a series of computer simulations to figure out what Neptune's lunar system looked like before Triton appeared. Initially, it was found that it was similar to the similar system of Uranus - but this did not last long. "Triton literally and figuratively" broke "into the orbit of Neptune and wreaked havoc on a well-organized system of moons, explains Kanul.
For a system like the moons of Uranus to become what astronomers observe in orbit of Neptune today, three important factors had to be present. First, young moons should not have destroyed Triton at the time of the collision. Secondly, they had to slow down Triton in the process so that it fell into a circular orbit, in which it rotates to this day. Finally, thirdly, the outer moons of Neptune should have remained intact.
“The question is, how exactly did the planet manage to capture Triton in an oblong orbit, and then“transfer”it to a round one? This requires dissipating some of the moon's energy to slow it down,”says Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington DC.
Promotional video:
Kanul and Rufu discovered that Triton's gravity was literally throwing smaller moons aside. He did collide with some of them and, as a result, received the necessary slowdown, changed the orbit to a circular one. This process took place fast enough that the moon itself did not fly out of the planet's gravity by inertia, so that it did not touch the outer orbital region and did not affect the moons that orbit away from Neptune.
Frankenstein's monster in space
Unfortunately, it will be difficult to confirm this hypothesis even if we send a satellite to Triton. It is covered with ice in a state of cryofmelting: in places the ice melts and freezes again, which is why the entire cover of the planet is in constant motion and all traces of the collision of Triton with other moons have been erased by time.
On the other hand, if scientists manage to take samples of the planet's soil, everything will immediately become clear. Triton is a moon molded from fragments of the original celestial body and pieces of those moons that it crushed when entering the orbit of Neptune. Astronomers jokingly compare it to Frankenstein's monster - who knows, maybe such an unusual nature actually harbors many secrets?
Vasily Makarov