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  • The 14 moons of Neptune are a strange bunch.

  • Most of them are small potato shaped pieces of ice and rock.

  • Some are so far away from Neptune that they need 29 years to circle Neptune once.

  • Almost all of them are asteroids trapped by Neptune's gravity.

  • 99.5% of all the mass around Neptune is concentrated in Triton.

  • It's the 7th biggest moon, and more massive than all other known moons

  • in the solar system that are smaller than itself combined.

  • Its surface area is about as big as the mainland of Russia and Australia together.

  • Also, Triton is one of only four objects in the solar system that we know is geologically active.

  • Triton orbits Neptune in the 'wrong' direction, against the rotation of Neptune,

  • which is unique in our solar system for an object as big as Triton.

  • We can conclude from this that Triton hasn't always been a moon of Neptune,

  • but probably was a dwarf planet that was forced into submission by Neptune,

  • when the solar system was younger and more chaotic.

  • The most popular theory here is that Triton was once part of a double system,

  • when Neptune migrated to the outer edges of the solar system,

  • its gravity interfered with the double system and catapulted the other object into space,

  • while Triton was forced into orbit.

  • This would of disrupted the orbits of other Neptune moons rather violently

  • and would most likely have either pushed them away from Neptune,

  • or let them collide or crash into Neptune.

  • This would explain why Neptune's moons are so dominated by Triton.

  • But, this will end one day,

  • Triton is being slowed down by Neptune,

  • and eventually,

  • it will either crash into it,

  • or be ground by Neptune's gravity into a huge ring system, similar to Saturn's.

  • So, don't by real estate on Triton.

  • Fixed English Subtiles by Mads Hagemann Nielsen - 2015

  • Subtitles by the Amara.org community

The 14 moons of Neptune are a strange bunch.

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