Re: PLUTO Was ORIGINALLY a MOON of NEPTUNE



The idea that Triton was captured does make more sense.


In a recent issue of _Sky and Telescope_ there was a short blurb on a serenero that involved Triton being one part of a Kiuper Belt binary object. Before, Triton and its partner were orbiting each other, and as seen from the Sun or even a nearby planet, Triton and its partner alternatively speed up and slow down. Time it right, Triton could be passing closer to Neptune and be in its binary orbit in such a way to make it be slower as seen from Neptune. The other object would then take away enough orbital energy to let Triton get captured by Neptune. Triton's partner then sails off in a new orbit around the Sun, and eventually gets tossed out of the solar system or hits a planet directly. It by itself can't get captured by any planet. It would just loop around like a space probe hooking around Jupiter. You have to lose velocity as compared to the planet you want to be captured by, and having the other object of a Triton binary suck it off works here. Triton would probably trash any existing Neptune moon system, which may have looked like Uranus's before.
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