PIA00061: Triton High Resolution View of Northern Hemisphere


Triton High Resolution View of Northern Hemisphere

Caption:

This is one of the most detailed views of the surface of Triton taken by Voyager 2 on its flyby of the large satellite of Neptune early in the morning of Aug. 25, 1989. The picture was stored on the tape recorder and relayed to Earth later. Taken from a distance of only 40,000 km (25,000 miles), the frame is about 220 kilometers (140 miles) across and shows details as small as 750 meters (0.5 miles). Most of the area is covered by a peculiar landscape of roughly circular depressions separated by rugged ridges. This type of terrain, which covers large tracts of Triton's northern hemisphere, is unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system. The depressions are probably not impact craters: They are too similar in size and too regularly spaced. Their origin is still unknown, but may involve local melting and collapse of the icy surface. A conspicuous set of grooves and ridges cuts across the landscape, indicating fracturing and deformation of Triton's surface. The rarity of impact craters suggests a young surface by solar system standards, probably less than a few billion years old.

Background Info:

The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Triton Neptune
System Neptune
Target Type Satellite Planet
Mission Voyager
Instrument Host Voyager 2
Host Type Flyby Spacecraft
Instrument
Detector
Extra Keywords Crater, Grayscale, Impact
Acquisition Date
Release Date 1996-01-29
Date in Caption 1989-08-25
Image Credit NASA/JPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00061
Identifier PIA00061