![]() ![]() Their results, recently published in The Astronomical Journal, propose that Neptune’s original complement of moons was consistent with the “calm, well-behaved” satellite systems found around the other giant planets, with a mass most likely similar to that of Uranus. Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute, Colorado, used a series of computer simulations to figure out the most probable scenario. Oded Aharonson of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, in collaboration with Dr. To unravel the mystery of what Neptune’s original moon system may have been like before Triton’s encroachment, Weizmann Institute of Science doctoral student, Raluca Rufu, who is in the group of Prof. Instead, it appears to be an intruder that caused havoc, throwing Neptune’s other satellites and their orbits off balance and leading to the irregular system that can be seen today. This anomaly has led scientists to believe that Triton was not part of the original Neptunian satellite system. The moons of the other three giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus – tend to obey the rules of their satellite systems, rotating very close to the planet’s equatorial plane and in the same direction as their planet, so Triton truly stands out. Not only does Triton orbit much farther away from Neptune than its other, smaller moons, it also spins in the opposite direction to the planet. Triton is unusually massive compared to the other Neptunian satellites but this is not the only characteristic that makes it an outlier. Neptune has one of the most peculiar assortments of moons in our solar system, and Triton is largely to blame.
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