The largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846 by William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation.[9] At 2700 km in diameter, it is the seventh-largest moon in the Solar System. Because of its retrograde orbit and composition similar to Pluto's, Triton is thought to have been captured from the Kuiper belt.[10] Triton consists of a crust of frozen nitrogen over an icy mantle believed to cover a substantial core of rock and metal.[4] The core makes up two-thirds of its total mass. Triton has a mean density of 2.061 g/cm3[3] and is composed of approximately 15–35% water ice.[4]
Triton is one of the few moons in the Solar System known to be geologically active. As a consequence, its surface is relatively young, with a complex geological history revealed in intricate and mysterious cryovolcanic and tectonic terrains.[4] Part of its crust is dotted with geysers believed to erupt nitrogen.[7] Triton has a tenuous nitrogen atmosphere less than 1/70 000th the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level.[7]
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