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Naiad, the closest regular moon, is also the second smallest among the inner moons (following the discovery of Hippocamp), whereas Proteus is the largest regular moon and the second largest moon of Neptune. The first five moons orbit much faster than Neptune's rotation itself ranging from 7 hours for Naiad and Thalassa, to 13 hours for Larissa.
Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be rounded under its own gravity and hosts a thin, hazy atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit—revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation—the only large moon in the Solar System to do so.
Several of Neptune's moons are also visible, including Galatea, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Larissa and Proteus. In one image, a bright blue feature that looks like a star is actually the moon ...
Proteus is the second-largest moon of Neptune and is the largest of its regular prograde moons. It is about 420 km (260 mi) in diameter, larger than Nereid, Neptune's third-largest moon. It was not discovered by Earth-based telescopes because Proteus orbits so close to Neptune that it is lost in the glare of reflected sunlight. [15]
The bright blue diffraction star is Triton, Neptune's largest moon. Neptune has 16 known moons. [155] Triton is the largest Neptunian moon, accounting for more than 99.5% of the mass in orbit around Neptune, [i] and is the only one massive enough to be spheroidal. Triton was discovered by William Lassell just 17 days after the discovery of ...
Nereid, or Neptune II, is the third-largest moon of Neptune. It has the most eccentric orbit of all known moons in the Solar System . [ 4 ] It was the second moon of Neptune to be discovered, by Gerard Kuiper in 1949.
Despina's diameter is approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi). [4] Despina is irregularly shaped and shows no sign of any geological modification. It is likely that it is a rubble pile re-accreted from fragments of Neptune's original satellites, which were disrupted by perturbations from Triton soon after that moon's capture into a very eccentric initial orbit.
Galatea inside of a faint ring arc near Neptune. Galatea was discovered in late July 1989 from the images taken by the Voyager 2 probe. It was given the temporary designation S/1989 N 4. [10] The discovery was announced (IAUC 4824) on 2 August 1989, and mentions "10 frames taken over 5 days", implying a discovery date of sometime before July 28.