Neptune's Moon - Nereid

N ereid was discovered in 1949 by astronomer Gerard Kuiper. Nereid is so far from Neptune that it requires 360 days to make one orbit. Voyager's best photos of Nereid were taken from about 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles). The photos show that the moon's surface reflects about 14 percent of the sunlight that strikes it, making it somewhat more reflective than Earth's Moon, and more than twice as reflective as Proteus. Nereid's orbit is the most eccentric in the solar system. Its distance to Neptune ranges from about 1,353,600 kilometers (841,100 miles) to 9,623,700 kilometers (5,980,200 miles).

PHYSICAL DATA FOR NEREID
 Mass (kg)
 Mass (Earth = 1)
 Radius (km) 170
 Radius (Earth = 1) 2.6654e - 02
 Mean Density (g/cm3)
 Mean Distance from Jupiter (km) 5,513,400
 Magnitude (V0) 18.7


ORBITAL DATA FOR NEREID
 Rotational period (days)
 Orbital period (days) 360.1362
 Mean orbital velocity (km/s) 1.12
 Orbital eccentricity 0.7512
 Orbital inclination (degrees) 27.6
 Escape (km/s)
 Albedo 0.14


Physical Data Key
 
Mass Mass
Mass Mass compared to that of Earth.
Radius Radius
Radius Radius compared to that of Earth.
Mean Density Average Density.
Distance Distance to the planet's center.
Magnitude The brightness of a star or object.
 
 
Orbital Data Key
 
Rotational Period Number of days to make one complete rotation.
Orbital Period Number of days to obital the planet.
Mean Orbital Velocity Average obital speed.
Orbital Eccentricity Eccentricity.
Orbital Inclination The tilt of the moon or planet.
Escape Escape Velocity.
Albedo Visual geometric albedo.

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