Pluto and Triton, Neptune's largest moon, originated from Kuiper Belt: Study
Pluto Triton
A new analysis has indicated that Pluto, the dwarf planet and Triton, Neptune's largest moon could be siblings and may have sharedorigin. According to scientists, both bodies may have emerged from the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy objects like Pluto that exist beyond Neptune. The study, conducted by Kathleen Mandt at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and her colleagues, also suggested that both Triton and Pluto may have formed very close to each other before the solar system settled down.
“They probably formed in the same region, which wouldn’t be where the Kuiper belt is now – it would have been either closer or farther away,” said Mandt.
The composition
The team found similarities in the composition of both bodies. Both contain large amounts of nitrogen and carry a substantial amount of methane and carbon monoxide. According to the experts, these gasses may have accumulated in the outer regions of the young nebula that surrounded our sun 4.5 billion years ago.
This composition indicates that both bodies may have formed in cold outer regions of the early solar system, where nitrogen was present in abundance.
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Their formation
According to Mandt, “Both bodies had to have formed beyond the water-ice." Water-ice line refers to the distance from the Sun beyond which water can't remain in a liquid state and freezes into ice.
She added the bodies may have formed within one to five astronomical units (AU), or sun-Earth distances, of each other.
Later for some reason, the scientists estimate, Triton may have ejected from the region and got pulled by Neptune.
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"To truly understand where Triton and Pluto came from, we would need to visit the bodies again. However, that's unlikely to happen soon because it takes a long time to travel there,"Mandt added.
Notably, humans have visited both bodies once in the past.
Triton was visited by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, and Pluto was visited by NASA's New Horizons probe in 2015. Both Triton and Pluto are icy bodies smaller than Earth's moon. They have similar densities and seem to have had underground oceans in the past.
(With inputs from agencies)