Triton

**Triton** (Triton) is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only large moon in the Sol system with a retrograde orbit, an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. Because of its retrograde orbit and composition similar to Saturn's, Triton is thought to have been a dwarf planet captured from the Titan Belt. Triton has a surface of mostly frozen nitrogen, a mostly water-ice crust, and an icy mantle and a substantial core of rock and metal. The core makes up two-thirds of its total mass. The moon is named after the son of Neptune.

Triton is one of the few moons in the Sol system known to be geologically active. As a consequence, its surface is relatively young, with a complex geological history revealed in intricate cryovolcanic and tectonic terrains. Part of its crust is dotted with geysers thought to erupt nitrogen. Triton has a tenuous nitrogen atmosphere less than 1/70,000 the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level.

## Composition

### Surface

Triton comprises more than 99.5% of all the mass to orbit Neptune. It has a radius, density, temperature and chemical composition similar to those of Saturn.

As with Saturn, 55% of Triton's surface is covered with frozen nitrogen, with water ice comprising 15–35% and dry ice forming the remaining 10–20%. material.

#### Conditions

Triton is relatively flat; its topography never varies beyond a kilometer. There are relatively few impact craters on Triton. In geological terms, Triton's surface is extremely young, with regions varying from 50 million years old to just 6 million years old.

Triton is geologically active; its surface is young and has relatively few impact craters. Although Triton is made of various ices, its subsurface processes are similar to those that produce volcanoes and rift valleys on Terra, but with water and ammonia as opposed to liquid rock.

### Structure

Triton is differentiated, like Terra, into a solid core, a mantle and a crust. Water, the most abundant volatile in the Sol system, comprises Triton's mantle, which lies over a core of rock and metal. Triton's density implies it is about 36% water ice, with the remainder being rocky.

## Dynamics

### Atmosphere

Triton has a tenuous nitrogen atmosphere, with trace amounts of carbon monoxide and small amounts of methane near the surface. Triton's surface atmospheric pressure is only about 1.4–1.9 Pa (0.014–0.019 mbar); in other words it is 70,000th of Terra's atmosphere.

## Orbit and rotation

Triton is unique among all large moons in the Sol system for its retrograde orbit around its planet (i.e. it orbits in a direction opposite to the planet's rotation). The orbit is tilted by 156.885°, from Neptune's equator. Triton's rotation is tidally locked to be synchronous with its orbit around Neptune: it keeps one face oriented toward the planet at all times. Its equator is almost exactly aligned with its orbital plane.

Triton's revolution around Neptune has become a nearly perfect circle with an eccentricity of almost zero. Tidal interactions also cause Triton's orbit, which is already closer to Neptune than the Luna's is to Terra, to gradually decay further. 3.6 billion years from now, Triton will pass within Neptune's Roche limit, which will result in the breakup of Triton, forming a ring system similar to that found around Pluto. However, this is so far from the present, that moving Triton is extremely unnecessary.

### Capture

Moons in retrograde orbits cannot form out of the same region of the solar nebula as the planets they orbit, so Triton must have been captured from elsewhere. It probably originated in the Titan Belt. The capture of Triton explains several of Neptune's asteroid-like moons. Triton's initially eccentric orbit would have intersected orbits of irregular moons and disrupted those of smaller regular moons, dispersing them through gravitational interactions. Triton was probably captured when Neptune was pushed outwards by Pluto and Jupiter; during the early Sol system.

## Civilization

### Initial colonies

Rather than colonize the atmosphere of Neptune, the Conglomerate decided that colonizing Triton was much easier. Using the same idea of colonies on Bacchus, robots set up the initiation of the colony. With the arrival of humans, rotating spheres supported by magnets or a fluid were constructed, providing living space inside of, and 0.5 terran gravity to negate health effects from low gravity. Farms and an artificial water cycles were soon constructed within these sphere cities, within a decade, 1,000,000 people were living on the surface of Triton. The first colony on Triton was completed in 2123 CE, shortly after their arrival in the Neptunian system.

### Economy and human geography

Due to the hostile atmosphere of Neptune, especially with high wind speeds and freezing temperatures, colonies were set up on Triton first. From Triton, gases from Neptune is mined in monthly trips. On the surface of Triton, many materials are mined to support the colonies, especially nitrogen for the air. This far from Terra, water is also an essential.