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On the origin of Triton and Pluto

Lyttleton hypothesized long ago that Triton and Pluto originated as adjacent prograde satellites of Neptune(1). With the presently accepted masses of Triton and Pluto–Charon(2,3), however, the momentum and energy exchange that would be required to set Triton on a retrograde trajectory is impossible....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: McKinnon, William B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 1984
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095097/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/311355a0
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author McKinnon, William B.
author_facet McKinnon, William B.
author_sort McKinnon, William B.
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description Lyttleton hypothesized long ago that Triton and Pluto originated as adjacent prograde satellites of Neptune(1). With the presently accepted masses of Triton and Pluto–Charon(2,3), however, the momentum and energy exchange that would be required to set Triton on a retrograde trajectory is impossible. The mass of Triton has probably been seriously overestimated(4,5), but not by enough to relax this restriction. It is implausible that the present angular momentum state of Pluto–Charon has been significantly influenced by Neptune(6). It could not acquire such angular momentum during an ejection event unless a physical collision was involved, which is quite unlikely. The simplest hypothesis is that Triton and Pluto are independent representatives of large outer Solar System planetesimals. Triton is simply captured, with potentially spectacular consequences that include runaway melting of interior ices and release to the surface of clathrated CH(4), CO and N(2) (ref. 7). Condensed remnants of this proto-atmosphere could account for features in Triton's unique spectrum(8–11).
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spelling pubmed-70950972020-03-26 On the origin of Triton and Pluto McKinnon, William B. Nature Article Lyttleton hypothesized long ago that Triton and Pluto originated as adjacent prograde satellites of Neptune(1). With the presently accepted masses of Triton and Pluto–Charon(2,3), however, the momentum and energy exchange that would be required to set Triton on a retrograde trajectory is impossible. The mass of Triton has probably been seriously overestimated(4,5), but not by enough to relax this restriction. It is implausible that the present angular momentum state of Pluto–Charon has been significantly influenced by Neptune(6). It could not acquire such angular momentum during an ejection event unless a physical collision was involved, which is quite unlikely. The simplest hypothesis is that Triton and Pluto are independent representatives of large outer Solar System planetesimals. Triton is simply captured, with potentially spectacular consequences that include runaway melting of interior ices and release to the surface of clathrated CH(4), CO and N(2) (ref. 7). Condensed remnants of this proto-atmosphere could account for features in Triton's unique spectrum(8–11). Nature Publishing Group UK 1984 /pmc/articles/PMC7095097/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/311355a0 Text en © Nature Publishing Group 1984 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
McKinnon, William B.
On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title_full On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title_fullStr On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title_full_unstemmed On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title_short On the origin of Triton and Pluto
title_sort on the origin of triton and pluto
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095097/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/311355a0
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