Neptune's Moon Triton Revealed In Stunningly Remastered 1989 Voyager 1 Footage

This (Real) Trip Around Triton Takes 25 Seconds

Exactly 25 years ago NASA's Voyager space craft sailed past Neptune's moon Triton.

Now we can see what it really looked like.

Newly restored footage of Voyager 1's flypast the strange moon, which is pocketed by volcanoes and surface fractures despite its icy exterior.

The footage was cleaned up by Paul Schenk, who used a new map of the planet with a resolution of 600m per pixel, and edited the colours to reflect what human explorers would see on a similar flypast.

The map was produced ahead of a similar flypast of the New Horizons spacecraft with Pluto, which is similar to Triton, being roughly the same size and composition. Meanwhile Voyager 1 is celebrating what is (probably) it's two-year anniversary since leaving the Solar System entirely.

Nasa said:

"Although a fast flyby, New Horizons' Pluto encounter on July 14, 2015, will not be a replay of Voyager but more of a sequel and a reboot, with a new and more technologically advanced spacecraft and, more importantly, a new cast of characters. Those characters are Pluto and its family of five known moons, all of which will be seen up close for the first time next summer.

Triton may not be a perfect preview of coming attractions, but it serves as a prequel to the cosmic blockbuster expected when New Horizons arrives at Pluto next year."

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