Neptune's Triton - A moon rich in dry ice and carbon?
Abstract
The encounter of the spacecraft Voyager 2 with Neptune and its large satellite Triton in August 1989 provides a crucial test of ideas regarding the origin and chemical composition of the outer solar system. This preencounter paper quantifies the possibility that Triton is a captured moon which, like Pluto and Charon, originally condensed as a major planetesimal within the gas ring that was shed by the contracting protosolar cloud at Neptune's orbit. Ideas of supersonic convective turbulence are used to compute the gas pressure, temperature and rate of catalytic synthesis of CH4, CO2, and solid carbon within the protosolar cloud, assuming that all C is initially present as CO. The calculations lead to a unique composition for Triton, Pluto, and Charon.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Pub Date:
- 1990
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1323358000023742
- Bibcode:
- 1990PASA....8..364P
- Keywords:
-
- Carbon;
- Ice;
- Neptune (Planet);
- Planetary Composition;
- Triton;
- Astronomical Models;
- Chemical Composition;
- Pluto (Planet);
- Protoplanets;
- Turbulence Effects;
- Voyager 2 Spacecraft;
- Lunar and Planetary Exploration