Triton, Neptune's Largest Moon, Has Unique Features That Confuse Scientists
by Owen Borville
Triton, Neptune's largest of 13 moons, was discovered in 1846 just weeks after Neptune itself was discovered. At three quarters the diameter of the Earth's moon, Triton has features that give evidence of its youth including its surface, of which even evolutionists recognize is very young. Estimates for the age of Triton's surface are less than 10 million years within the 4.5 billion year time scale. The surface is unusual, and is described as "a sparsely cratered surface with smooth volcanic plains, mounds and round pits formed by icy lava flows." This frozen planet has a high density, higher than most planetary moons in the solar system. Another recently discovered feature of Triton is the existence of seasons by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observations showed that the atmosphere thickened during the summer season. Triton is also known to be geologically active despite having a frozen surface. Voyager 2 captured photos of several "geyser-like" volcanic vents spewing nitrogen gas and fine particles miles upward. In addition, Triton has the unique feature in that it orbits in a retrograde direction around Neptune, or the opposite direction in which Neptune rotates. Triton is the only known moon in the solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation. Evolutionists have difficulty describing a volcanically active moon with seasons located so far from the sun and existing for billions of years, in addition to its retrograde orbit. These unique features therefore give evidence for a special creation and a young timeline within the creationist model, in contrast to uniformitarian explanations by mainstream scientists that involve gradual processes over millions of years. Triton's orbit, in addition to being retrograde, is almost perfectly circular, which further complicates uniformitarian models and gives stronger evidence against being captured from outside Neptune's orbit. While many planets and moons in our solar system feature remains of past volcanic activity, Triton is one of only four planetary bodies in the solar system to feature active volcanoes, the only others being Earth, Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Schenk, P.M., and Zahnle, K. On the Negligible Surface Age of Triton, Icarus 192(1):135–149, 2007.
Seasons Discovered on Neptune's Moon Triton. Space.com. April 7, 2010.
Triton: Neptune's Odd Moon. Space.com. January 26, 2018.
NASA Science Solar System Exploration: Triton. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/neptune-moons/triton/in-depth/.
by Owen Borville
Triton, Neptune's largest of 13 moons, was discovered in 1846 just weeks after Neptune itself was discovered. At three quarters the diameter of the Earth's moon, Triton has features that give evidence of its youth including its surface, of which even evolutionists recognize is very young. Estimates for the age of Triton's surface are less than 10 million years within the 4.5 billion year time scale. The surface is unusual, and is described as "a sparsely cratered surface with smooth volcanic plains, mounds and round pits formed by icy lava flows." This frozen planet has a high density, higher than most planetary moons in the solar system. Another recently discovered feature of Triton is the existence of seasons by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observations showed that the atmosphere thickened during the summer season. Triton is also known to be geologically active despite having a frozen surface. Voyager 2 captured photos of several "geyser-like" volcanic vents spewing nitrogen gas and fine particles miles upward. In addition, Triton has the unique feature in that it orbits in a retrograde direction around Neptune, or the opposite direction in which Neptune rotates. Triton is the only known moon in the solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation. Evolutionists have difficulty describing a volcanically active moon with seasons located so far from the sun and existing for billions of years, in addition to its retrograde orbit. These unique features therefore give evidence for a special creation and a young timeline within the creationist model, in contrast to uniformitarian explanations by mainstream scientists that involve gradual processes over millions of years. Triton's orbit, in addition to being retrograde, is almost perfectly circular, which further complicates uniformitarian models and gives stronger evidence against being captured from outside Neptune's orbit. While many planets and moons in our solar system feature remains of past volcanic activity, Triton is one of only four planetary bodies in the solar system to feature active volcanoes, the only others being Earth, Jupiter's moon Io, and Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Schenk, P.M., and Zahnle, K. On the Negligible Surface Age of Triton, Icarus 192(1):135–149, 2007.
Seasons Discovered on Neptune's Moon Triton. Space.com. April 7, 2010.
Triton: Neptune's Odd Moon. Space.com. January 26, 2018.
NASA Science Solar System Exploration: Triton. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/neptune-moons/triton/in-depth/.
