by 4freedom on May 12th, 2006

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What are the names of the moons of Neptune?

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  • by Jodie44 on May 12th, 2006

    Jodie44

    Neptune has eight named moons: Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, and Nereid.

    Five more were discovered in 2002/2003, but they have yet to be named. Their designations are S/2002 N1; S/2002 N2; S/2002 N3; S/2002 N4; and S/2003 N1.

    http://home.case.edu/~sjr16/neptune_moons.html.

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  • by Chris on July 9th, 2008

    Chris

    Due to its great distance from the Earth it is extremely difficult for us to see any of Neptune's moons. For that reason most of its moons were not discovered until 1989 when NASA sent a satellite to explore the world. Today we know of 13 moons. However there are almost certainly many more orbiting Neptune which we have not yet discovered.
    http://www.kidsastronomy.com/neptune/moons.htm
    Neptune has far fewer moons (13 are now known) than all the other outer planets, and only one of them, Triton, is large enough to be a world unto itself. Unlike all other large icy satellites, Triton is in a retrograde orbit (that is, it orbits opposite to the planet’s sense of rotation), which could mean that Triton was a wayward object that formed elsewhere and was captured into Neptune orbit. Only Triton and Nereid were known prior to the Voyager 2 encounter. Voyager 2 yielded six more moons in circular orbits close to the planet and its rings. Another five likely captured moons have been discovered in telescopic surveys since 2002. Nereid has the most elliptical orbit of any moon in the solar system, zooming in to 1 million and out to 9 million kilometers (0.6 to 5.6 million miles) from Neptune.

    Naiad
    58 kilometers diameter; 48,200 kilometers from Neptune

    Thalassa
    80 kilometers diameter; 50,100 kilometers from Neptune

    Despina
    148 kilometers diameter; 52,500 kilometers from Neptune

    Galatea
    158 kilometers diameter; 62,000 kilometers from Neptune
    Larissa at a scale of 20 km/pixel

    Larissa
    192 kilometers diameter; 73,500 kilometers from Neptune
    Proteus at a scale of 20 km/pixel

    Proteus
    416 kilometers diameter; 117,600 kilometers from Neptune
    Triton at a scale of 20 km/pixel

    Triton
    2706 kilometers diameter; 354,800 kilometers from Neptune

    Nereid
    340 kilometers diameter; 5,513,400 kilometers from Neptune

    Halimede (S/2002 N1)
    61 kilometers diameter; 15,728,000 kilometers from Neptune

    Sao (S/2002 N2)
    40 kilometers diameter; 22,422,190 kilometers from Neptune

    Laomedeia (S/2002 N3)
    40 kilometers diameter; 23,571,200 kilometers from Neptune

    Psamathe (S/2003 N1)
    38 kilometers diameter; 46,695,000 kilometers from Neptune

    Neso (S/2002 N4)
    60 kilometers diameter; 48,838,670 kilometers from Neptune
    http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/neptune/moons.html
    Name Discoverer Diameter Distance from Neptune Orbital Period (days)
    Naiad Voyager 2, 1989 60 km/37 mi 48,000 km/29,800 mi 0.30
    Thalassa Voyager 2, 1989 80 km/50 mi 50,000 km/31,100 mi 0.31
    Despina Voyager 2, 1989 150 km/ 93 mi 52,500 km/32,600 mi 0.33
    Galatea Voyager 2, 1989 160 km/99 mi 62.000 km/38,500 mi 0.43
    Larissa Voyager 2, 1989 190 km/118 mi 73,600 km/45,700 mi 0.55
    Proteus Voyager 2, 1989 420 km/261 mi 117,600 km/73,100 mi 1.12
    Triton Lassell, 1846 2,700 km/1,678 mi 354,800 km/220,500 mi 5.88
    Nereid Kuiper, 1949 340 km/211 mi 5,513,400 km/3,426,000 mi 365.21
    http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/ceps/etp/neptune/nept_moons.html
    Neptune has 13 natural satellites. Two major moons of Neptune, Triton and Nereid, have been known for a long time:

    * English astronomer William Lassell detected Neptune's largest natural satellite, Triton, less than a month after the planet was discovered in 1846. Triton has an unusual orbit. It moves in a backward (retrograde) direction around Neptune, unlike any other of the Solar System's large satellites. Triton has a diameter of 1,681 miles, which is slightly smaller than Earth's Moon. The most interesting feature of this unusually interesting world are its ice volcanoes. Liquid nitrogen, dust or methane compounds erupt from beneath the surface. One of Voyager's photographs shows a plume rising almost five miles above the surface and extending some 80 miles downwind. Triton, Jupiter's moon Io and the planet Venus are the only bodies in the Solar System outside of Earth that are known to be volcanically active at the present time. Mars was in the past.

    * Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper discovered Nereid in 1949. Nereid also has an unusual orbit. It has the most eccentric orbit of any moon in the Solar System. Its distance from Neptune varies from 900,000 to 6,000,000 miles. Voyager 2 found the small moon to be only 213 miles in diameter. Nereid reflects about 12 percent of the sunlight that reaches it. Nereid's odd orbit suggests it might be a captured asteroid.

    A NASA Image of a tiny dark moon of the Planet Neptune As it passed by the planet, Voyager 2 discovered six additional natural satellites, giving Neptune a total of eight moons.

    * Proteus is the largest Voyager-discovered moon. It has an irregular shape with an average diameter of about 250 miles. That is slightly larger than Nereid, but Proteus is a much darker body, reflecting only about six percent of the sunlight that strikes it. Proteus also is closer to Neptune, which explains why it was undiscovered even as Nereid could be observed from Earth. Proteus orbits Neptune at a distance of about 73,500 miles. Proteus is gray. Voyager saw craters and grooves on its surface. There was no sign of geologic activity. The irregular outline of Proteus suggests it has remained cold and icy throughout much of its history. Proteus is probably about as big as an irregular body can be before its gravity would pull it into a spherical shape.

    * Larissa is an irregularly shaped, dark object about 130 miles long by 112 miles wide. Larissa orbits Neptune at a distance of about 46,300 miles. It reflects only five percent of the sunlight that falls on it. Larissa appears to have several craters from 19 to 31 miles across. The irregular outline of Larissa also suggests it has been cold and icy throughout its history.

    * Despina circles Neptune at a distance of about 38,000 miles.

    * Galatea orbits at a distance of about 32,000 miles from Neptune.

    * Thalassa revolves around Neptune every 7.5 hours at a distance of 31,000 miles.

    * Naiad is in a 7.1-hour orbit. It has a noticeable inclination, tilted 4.5 degrees to the equatorial plane of Neptune.

    Three small moons were discovered in 2002 and two more in 2003.

    * The 2002-2003 discoveries range from 19-31 miles in diameter.
    * The moons found by Voyager 2 in 1989 range in diameter from 33 miles to 250 miles.
    * Nereid is 210 miles in diameter.
    * Triton's diameter is 1,680 miles.


    The planet was visited once by Voyager 2, an unmanned robot probe from Earth, which flew within 3,100 miles of Neptune in 1989.
    http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Neptune/NeptuneMoons.html

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