Flying Past Neptune's Moon Triton
What would it look like to fly past
Triton, the largest moon of planet
Neptune?
Only one spacecraft has ever done this -- and the images of this dramatic encounter have been
gathered into a
video.
In 1989, the
Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft shot through the Neptune system with
cameras blazing.
Triton is slightly smaller than
Earth's Moon but has
ice volcanoes and a surface rich in
frozen nitrogen.
The first sequence in
the video shows Voyager's approach to
Triton,
which, with the exception of an overall
false green tint, appears in approximately true color.
The mysterious cantaloupe terrain seen under the spacecraft soon changed from light to dark, with the
terminator of night crossing
underneath.
After closest approach,
Voyager pivoted to see the departing moon, now visible as a
diminishing crescent.
In 2015, the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft famously
flew past
Pluto, an orb of similar size to Triton.