Exploring Neptunes Moons

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The planet Neptune has 14 known moons, which are named for minor water deities in Greek mythology. By far the largest of them is Triton, discovered by William Lassell on October 10, 1846, 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself. Over a century passed before the discovery of the second natural satellite, Nereid. Neptune's outermost moon Neso, which has an orbital period of about 27 Julian years, orbits farther from its planet than any other moon in the Solar System. • Triton is unique among moons of the planetary mass in that its orbit is retrograde to Neptune's rotation and inclined relative to Neptune's equator, which suggests that it did not form in orbit around Neptune but was instead gravitationally captured by it. The next-largest satellite in the Solar System suspected to be captured, Saturn's moon Phoebe, has only 0.03% of Triton's mass. The capture of Triton, probably occurring sometime after Neptune formed a satellite system, was a catastrophic event for Neptune's original satellites, disrupting their orbits so that they collided to form a rubble disc. Triton is massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium and to retain a thin atmosphere capable of forming clouds and hazes. • Inward of Triton are seven small regular satellites, all of which have prograde orbits in planes that lie close to Neptune's equatorial plane; some of these orbit among Neptune's rings. The largest of them is Proteus. They were re-accreted from the rubble disc generated after Triton's capture after the Tritonian orbit became circular. Neptune also has six more outer irregular satellites other than Triton, including Nereid, whose orbits are much farther from Neptune and at high inclination: three of these have prograde orbits, while the remainder has retrograde orbits. In particular, Nereid has an unusually close and eccentric orbit for an irregular satellite, suggesting that it may have once been a regular satellite that was significantly perturbed to its current position when Triton was captured. The two outermost Neptunian irregular satellites, Psamathe and Neso, have the largest orbits of any natural satellites discovered in the Solar System to date. • Neptune Moons Size Comparison • Hippocamp (Neptune XIV S/2004 N 1) / 34.8 km • Psamathe (Neptune X S/2003 N 1) / 40 km • Laomedia (Neptune XII S/2002 N 3) / 42 km • Sao (Neptune XI S/2003 N 2) / 44 km • Neso (Neptune XIII S/2002 N 4) / 60 km • Naiad (Neptune III S/1989 N 6) / 60.4 km • Halimede (Neptune IX S/2002 N 1) / 62 km • Thallasa (Neptune IV S/1989 N 5) / 81.4 km • Despina (Neptune V S/1989 N 3) / 156 km • Galatea (Neptune VI S/1989 N 4) / 174.8 km • Larissa (Neptune VII S/1989 N 2) / 194 km • Nereid (Neptune II S/1949 N 2) / 357 km • Proteus (Neptune VIII S/1989 N 1) / 420 km • Triton (Neptune I S/1846 N 1) / 2,706.8 km • Moon (Fifth Largest Satellite) (For References) / 3,474.8 km • Earth (Terrestrial Planet) (For References) / 12,742 km • Neptune (Parent) (Gas Giant or Outer Planet) / 49,244 km • • • Neptune Moons Average Orbital Distance • Neptune (Top Angle) 24,622 km (Mean Radius) • Naiad / 48,224.41 km /0.294 day • Thalassa / 50,074.44 km /0.311 day • Despina / 50,074.67 km /0.334 day • Galatea / 61,952.57 km /0.428 day • Larissa / 73,548.26 km /0.554 day • Hippocamp / 105,283 km /0.95 day • Proteus / 117,647 km /1.122 days • Triton / 354,759 km / 5.876 days • Moon Orbit (For References) / 384,399 km / 27.322 days • Sun (For References) / 695,700 km (Mean Radius) • Nereid / 5,504,000 km / 0.987 years • Halimede / 16,611,000 km / 5.14 years • Sao / 22,228,000 km / 7.97 years • Laomedeia / 23,613,000 km / 8.68 years • Psamathe / 46,705,000 km / 24.9 years • Neso / 49,500,000 km / 26.67 years • Earth Orbit (For References) / 149,597,870.7 km / 1 year • 0:00 Neptune's Moons Sizes Zoom Out • 1:37 Neptune's Moons Average Orbital Distance • 3:17 Neptune's Moons Sizes Cinematic • Music: • Time Passing By

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