Moons of Neptune



General

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, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself; over a century passed before the discovery of the second natural satellite, Nereid. The moon orbiting farthest from its planet in the Solar System is Neptune's Neso and has an orbital period of about 26 yrs.

Triton is unique among moons of 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 irregular satellite in the Solar System, Saturn's moon Phoebe, has only 0.03% of Triton's mass. The capture of Triton, probably occurring some time 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 have 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.

The 14 Moons

 * 1) Neptune III Naiad
 * 2) Neptune IV Thalassa
 * 3) Neptune V Despina
 * 4) Neptune VI Galatea
 * 5) Neptune VII Larissa
 * 6) S/2004 N 1 Showalter-Moon
 * 7) Neptune VIII Proteus
 * 8) Neptune I  Triton
 * 9) Neptune II Nereid
 * 10) Neptune IX Halimede
 * 11) Neptune XI Sao
 * 12) Neptune XII Laomedeia
 * 13) Neptune X Psamathe
 * 14) Neptune XIII Neso