The World That Goes Backwards

You stand on the frozen nitrogen plains of Triton Station, Neptune hanging enormous in the sky. But something is wrong. Neptune is rotating the wrong way.

The Backwards Motion

Every moon in the solar system is tidally locked, so the planet hangs motionless in the sky. Triton is no exception—Neptune occupies the same position, never rising or setting.

But unlike every other moon, Neptune is rotating backwards.

Not "slowly," not "retrograde like Venus." Backwards relative to Triton's orbit.

Commander Kim explained it during training: "Triton orbits clockwise. Neptune rotates counterclockwise. From Triton's perspective, Neptune's rotation speed ADDS to our orbital speed. It looks like Neptune is spinning even faster than it actually is."

You watch. Neptune's cloud bands flow across its face. A storm system that was on the eastern edge 90 minutes ago is now approaching the center. In another 90 minutes, it will be on the western edge.

But it's moving the "wrong" direction compared to every other moon you've visited.

Your brain screams that something is broken. Moons don't orbit backwards. Planets don't spin the wrong way. But here, on Triton, the universe runs in reverse.

The Rogue Moon

"Triton wasn't always Neptune's moon," says Dr. Okafor, the station's astronomer. "It was a Kuiper Belt object—a dwarf planet. Neptune captured it in a retrograde orbit billions of years ago."

That's why Triton orbits backwards. It's not a natural satellite—it's a prisoner. Captured. Enslaved. Forced to orbit the wrong direction.

And like any prisoner in the wrong place, Triton is paying the price.

The Doomed World

"We're spiraling inward," Okafor continues. She pulls up a simulation on her tablet. "Tidal forces are stealing energy from our orbit. Every year, Triton gets 1.5 centimeters closer to Neptune."

1.5 cm doesn't sound like much. But:

• In 100 million years: Triton will be 1,500 km closer
• In 1 billion years: The tides will start to tear Triton apart
• In 3.6 billion years: Triton will cross the Roche limit
• Result: Triton breaks apart into rings

"We're standing on a doomed moon," Okafor says quietly. "In a few billion years, Triton won't exist. Neptune will have the most spectacular rings in the solar system—made from our corpse."

You look at Neptune, spinning backwards in the sky. A beautiful monster, slowly devouring its captive moon.

The Coldest Place

You check the external temperature: -235°C.

Triton is the coldest object ever measured in the solar system. Colder than Pluto. Colder than the Kuiper Belt. The last place in the solar system where nitrogen is liquid.

At this temperature, time itself seems frozen. Chemical reactions happen at geological pace. Erosion is measured in millions of years. Even the geysers—active nitrogen geysers erupting 8 km into the sky—happen in slow motion, their plumes taking hours to rise and fall.

The Geyser Clock

Hour 3 of your shift: An alarm sounds. "Geyser eruption, Sector 12."

You check the monitor. Sure enough, Mahilani Geyser is erupting—a plume of nitrogen gas and ice shooting 8 km into the thin atmosphere, then falling back in Triton's low gravity over the course of hours.

Mahilani erupts every ~18 hours. It's one of dozens of active geysers on Triton. They're powered by solar heating—even though the sun is 30 AU away and 900 times dimmer than on Earth, it's enough to warm Triton's surface by a few degrees and drive geyser activity.

"Mahilani is our clock," says the shift manager. "When it erupts, we know 18 hours have passed. More reliable than any chronometer."

Summer for 41 Years

You've been on Triton for 2 Earth years. You'll be here for 2 more years before rotation back to Earth.

But you're experiencing something unique: Triton's summer. The southern hemisphere summer that began in 2000 and will last until 2048.

48 years of summer.

The increased solar heating (slightly less freezing-cold than winter) drives increased geyser activity. Triton's thin atmosphere thickens slightly. Nitrogen ice migrates from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere.

And you get to experience 4 years of this multi-decade summer.

In 2048, autumn will begin. The geysers will slow. The atmosphere will thin. The temperature will drop from -235°C to -237°C. And autumn will last another 41 years.

Counting Backwards

Later, you file your daily report:

• Earth date: March 15, 2027
• Days on Triton: 751 (2.06 Earth years)
• Triton orbits completed: 127 (5.877 days per orbit)
• Neptune rotations witnessed: ~1,100 (8.7 per Triton orbit)
• Current season: Southern summer, year 27 of 41

You've watched Neptune rotate over 1,100 times. Always backwards. Always the wrong direction.

Tomorrow, you'll watch it rotate 9 more times. Triton will complete another orbit in the wrong direction. The geysers will erupt on schedule. And you'll still be here, on the coldest, most backwards moon in the solar system, slowly spiraling toward oblivion.

Time moves backwards on Triton. And in 3.6 billion years, time will stop entirely.