These two images show Triton's South Pole. The nitrogen ice polar cap is the light pink area along the bottom and lower left parts of the lower image. Click on image for full size (97 Kb) Images courtesy of NASA/JPL/USGS.

Triton is by far the largest moon of Neptune, and is one of the most unusual large moons in the Solar System. The poles of Triton are especially interesting.

Triton has a frozen polar cap with ice geysers. This frigid moon has a very high surface albedo (it is covered with bright, shiny ices), especially at the South Pole. The pole is topped with a cap of nitrogen and methane ices. Scientists have spotted darker smears near Triton's South Pole, which they believe are surface deposits of materials downwind of cryovolcanoes (ice geysers or ice volcanoes). This makes Triton one of only four Solar System bodies on which active volcanism has been observed; the other three are Earth, Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Astronomers suspect that Triton's North Pole is also covered by an ice cap; however, the moon's northern hemisphere has never been imaged in detail.

Thanks to an odd mix of orbital geometries of both Triton and its "parent" planet Neptune, Triton's poles spend most of their time in either perpetual darkness or perpetual light. Triton may have been a Kuiper Belt Object that was captured into orbit by Neptune's gravity in the distant past. The moon's orbit is tilted by a large amount away from Neptune's equator. Triton's odd orbit combined with Neptune's axial tilt and long orbital period (more than 164 Earth years) make for very, very long seasons at the moon's poles. Triton's poles alternate between 80+ years of perpetual summertime daylight and 80+ years of winter darkness.

These two pictures show the South Pole of Triton. The polar ice cap is the light pink area along the bottom of the lower picture. Click on image for full size (97 Kb) Images courtesy of NASA/JPL/USGS.

Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. It is a very unusual moon. The poles of Triton are especially interesting.

Triton has a polar ice cap at the South Pole. Earth, of course, has ice caps at its poles too. On Earth the ice caps are frozen water. On Triton, the ice caps are made of frozen nitrogen (and maybe some methane). Nitrogen is the main gas in Earth's atmosphere, but on Triton it is so cold that nitrogen freezes. The temperature on Triton is around -235° C (-391° F)! Scientists think Triton has an ice cap at its North Pole, too. However, we don't have any pictures of its North Pole yet.

Scientists have spotted ice volcanoes near the South Pole of Triton. There are only three other places in the Solar System that have volcanoes or geysers. Earth is one, Jupiter's moon Io is the second, and Saturn's moon Enceladus is the third.

Triton has a strange orbit around Neptune. Because of that, most of the time one of Triton's poles is tilted towards the Sun. Neptune takes more than 160 years to orbit the Sun once. That means that Triton's poles spend about 80 years in darkness followed by 80 years of sunlight. The seasons at Triton's poles last for decades!

These two pictures show the South Pole of Triton. The polar ice cap is the light pink area along the bottom of the lower picture. Click on image for full size (97 Kb) Images courtesy of NASA/JPL/USGS.

Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. It is a very odd moon. The poles of Triton are especially interesting.

Triton has a polar ice cap at the South Pole. Earth has ice caps at its poles too. On Earth the ice caps are frozen water. On Triton, the ice caps are mostly made of frozen nitrogen. Nitrogen is the main gas in Earth's atmosphere, but on Triton it is so cold that nitrogen freezes. The temperature on Triton is around -235° C (-391° F)!

Scientists have spotted ice volcanoes near the South Pole of Triton. There are only three other places in the Solar System that have volcanoes or geysers. Earth is one, Jupiter's moon Io is the second, and Saturn's moon Enceladus is the third.

Triton has a strange orbit around Neptune. Because of that, most of the time one of Triton's poles is tilted towards the Sun. Neptune takes more than 160 years to orbit the Sun once. That means that Triton's poles spend about 80 years in darkness followed by 80 years of sunlight. The seasons at Triton's poles last for decades!