Triton sounds like something either fantastical or science-y. As it turns out, the name refers to both.
In Greek mythology, Triton is the son of Poseidon. He’s a merman, with a tail like a fish and upper body of a man, who blows a conch so loudly it frightens his enemies away. He’s also the messenger for his parents, Poseidon and the nymph Amphitrite. In some stories, he’s also the foster-father to the goddess Athena.
In the solar system, Triton is a moon of the planet Neptune. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea, the Roman version of Poseidon…get it, the moon is the son of…?
Ah, those geekily amusing scientists.
NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Triton in 1989. It has an atmosphere of frozen nitrogen, measured by Voyager 2 at -235C. It also has active geysers, one of only 3 solar system bodies besides Earth that have geysers. NASA says that the moon is so icy that it reflects 70% of what sunlight manages to reach it, making it one of the coldest places in the solar system.
What? Cold + hot? Well, this moon is probably spewing something that’s liquid at or near those cold temps, not water. So our Earth-based impressions of hot and cold don’t apply. But something deep in the belly of the moon must be “hot” enough to create the geyser effect.
We believe Triton was formed by Neptune’s gravity pulling in mass from the Kuiper Belt. Unlike the Titans, the mythological Triton didn’t eat his siblings. nor any other relatives. But the moon Triton “ate” up the smaller pieces that accreted from the Kuiper Belt.
But there’s so much we don’t know about this moon.
Check out this montage from NASA. Triton is the big object in the foreground. NASA talks about the moon’s cantaloupe-like surface, and when you see photos like this, you understand why. The whole top half of the moon, in this image, looks like cantaloupe rind.
Triton was discovered in 1846, and for about a hundred years the other moons of Neptune remained unknown (see NASA site at link above for more). I imagine Triton the moon thought it was an only child, but then found out it had a lot of siblings. What a shock!
Triton
A voyager made the map, froze
your curves in the far light, luscious
as cantaloupe caught out of season.
You never turn your pearly back,
always face your filial love, swim
in your sire’s thin glow. Icy
volcanoes formed your calderas. Cold
magma spreads out to ponds silent, un-pebbled.
You are that stone, pit of unexpected
fruit your father found in the black desert.
He gathered you up, pulled you in. Jealous
child, you ate the others and now
circle his belt, resisting. Distrusting what you
can’t digest. Your belly, it burns.
If you enjoyed Triton
You’ll find more of my poems on this blog or in the collection Stars Crawl Out From Their Caves, which is available in both ebook and print.
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