![]() ![]() “Trident carried a near-infrared spectrometer, which would have allowed us for the first time to map the distribution of ices (N2, CH4, CO, CO2, and H2O) across its surface (Voyager did not carry a near-IR spectrometer so all we know about the composition is what we can glean from Earth).”įor now, Triton orbits Neptune near the edge of the solar system with its active geysers, a nitrogen atmosphere, and possible interior ocean. “Trident would have established the existence of a subsurface ocean - the first step in reconnaissance of an ocean world,” said Hansen-Koharchek. “The Earth also has a main nitrogen atmosphere - can you imagine if our atmosphere froze onto the ground in the winter?! Although Triton’s atmosphere is thin, winds blow and scatter particulates across the surface.”Īs stated, Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Triton, but another NASA mission known as TRIDENT was selected as a finalist in 2020 to explore Triton up close for the first time since 1989 but was ultimately passed over in the final selection round by NASA in 2021. “Triton has a nitrogen atmosphere that freezes into polar caps seasonally,” said Hansen-Koharchek. The active geology also explains the lack of craters on its surface, as well, and it turns out that Triton holds another feature similar to Earth. Unlike the geysers of Enceladus, which are believed to be caused by tidal heating, Triton’s geysers are the result of solar heating, where the dim sunlight that reaches the moon causes the frozen nitrogen on the surface to slowly melt and eventually erupt. That has profound implications, both in our solar system and at exoplanets.”ĭue to its geysers, which Voyager 2 identified as dark streaks, Triton is only the third known planetary body in the Solar System to be volcanically active, aside from Earth and Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon, Io. “If that is the case, and if we are able someday to reach that ocean and find life, that would extend the habitable zone to the Kuiper Belt, not just the inner solar system. “Triton may be an ‘ocean world’, a moon that has a solid ice crust over a liquid water subsurface ocean,” said Candice Hansen-Koharchek, a planetary scientist who was a Voyager Imaging Team Assistant Experiment Representative during the Voyager missions. But are Triton’s geysers the only characteristics that make it a good target for astrobiology and finding life beyond Earth? This is Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, which has been visited only once by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. We recently examined how and why Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? With its interior ocean and geysers of water ice that shoot out tens of kilometers into space that allegedly contains the ingredients for life, this small moon could be a prime target for future astrobiology missions.īut Enceladus isn’t the only location in our solar system with active geysers, as another small moon near the edge of the solar system shares similar characteristics, as well. ![]()
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