images

Triton's shadow on Neptune

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

a-nep99-00025

Date

2009-08-25

A full Neptune washes Triton's frozen surface with an indigo light, the only source of illumination on this now Triton's dark side. Fortuitous alignment of the Sun, Triton and Neptune causes this satellite's shadow to fall on Neptune's distant cloud tops 220 thousand miles away. This view is from within a deep, crater-like depression on Triton's northern hemisphere.