Triton
Triton orbits Neptune as one of its 13 moons. It is 354,759 km or 219,965 miles from Neptune and has a diameter of 2700 km or 1700 miles. Its orbit around Neptune takes a little under 6 days. Triton is partially flat. It has some spots but in other places on it, it has rocky outcroppings, canyons, geysers, and some craters. Triton's “seasons” take about 40 Earth years. For example, Triton's spring back in 1989 and the summer solstice was back in 2000. The average surface temperature on Triton is about -391°F. Right now on Triton it is summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern. As Triton's southern hemisphere heats up, a tiny layer of frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide on Triton's surface turns into gas (sublimation), making the icy atmosphere grow as the season progresses. Neptune has a 165-year orbit around the sun, which also means Triton takes 165 years to go around the sun. Triton's geysers shoot Icy substances (liquid nitrogen, dust, or methane) 5 miles into its atmosphere where the wind blows it parallel to the surface. Triton was discovered 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered. Eventually Triton will be torn apart by Neptune's gravitational pull known as Roche limit, causing it to basically be pulled apart and turned into a ring system very similar to Saturn's.
Facts about Triton
Discovered by William Lassell
Date of discovery 1846
Mass (kg)2.14e+22
Mass (Earth = 1)3.5810e-03
Equatorial radius (km)1,350
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1)2.1167e-01
Mean density (gm/cm^3)2.07
Average distance from Neptune (km)354,800
Rotational period (days)-5.87685
Orbital period (days)-5.87685
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec)-4.39
Orbital eccentricity 0.0000
Orbital inclination (degrees) 157.35
Escape velocity (km/sec)1.45
Visual geometric albedo 0.7
Magnitude (Vol.) 13.47
Average surface temperature -235°C
Resources
http://stardate.org/astro-guide/ssguide/triton