Jay T. Bergstralh

Alan William Harris

United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Scientific and Technical Information Branch

The orbital motion of Triton was redetermined from photographic data spanning the interval 1899-1981. The resulting ephemeris should provide Triton positions with respect to Neptune with an accuracy of plus or minus 500 km through the end of the century. The following physical results follow from the orbit solution. The inverse mass of Neptune + Triton is solar mass over (cN + mT) = 19490 plus or minus 40. No acceleration of the mean motion nor orbital eccentricity were detected, thus constraining the tidal dissipation factors of Neptune and Triton to ON less than or equal to 650 and QT less than or equal to 10,000. Tidal heating of Triton is presently insignificant. The gravitational harmonic J2 of Neptune is 0.0043 plus or minus 0.0003 if Triton is as massive as mT/ MN = 0.00128, and if Neptune's spin is prograde with P approximately 18(h), or J2 = 0.0037 plus or minus 0.0002 if Triton is much less massive. Triton undergoes extreme climatic variations due to the combined motion of it's orbit plane and Neptune's orbital motion. Approximately 10% of Triton's surface is presently hidden from diurnal insolation, which may provide a powerful cold trap for atmospheric voltatiles.

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