Neptune's Moons

Larissa (Neptune VII)
Larissa ("LA ree suh") is the fifth of Neptune's known satellites.

Orbit:73,600 km from Neptune
Diameter:193 km (208 x 178)
Mass:?

" Harold Reitsema " is now usually credited with the discovery of Larissa by ground-based stellar occultation observations. ( The first (and so far only) images of it were obtained by Voyager 2.

Like Proteus, Larissa is irregular (non-spherical) in shape and appears to be heavily cratered.

Proteus (Neptune VIII)
Proteus ("PROH tee us") is the sixth of Neptune's known satellites and the second largest.

Orbit:117,600 km from Neptune
Diameter:418 km (436 x 416 x 402)
Mass:?
Discovered in:1989 by Voyager 2. Though it is larger than Nereid, it was not discovered earlier because it is very dark and so close to Neptune that it is difficult to see in the glare of the much brighter planet.

Proteus is irregular (non-spherical) in shape. Proteus is probably about as big as an irregular body can be before its gravity pulls it into a more spherical shape.

The heavily cratered surface shows no signs of geologic activity.

Nereid (Neptune II)
Nereid ( "NEER ee ed" ) is the outermost of Neptune's known satellites and the third largest.

Orbit:5,513,400 km distance from Neptune
Diameter:340 km
Mass:?
Discovered in:1949 by Kuiper.

Nereid's orbit is the most highly eccentric of any planet or satellite in the solar system; its distance from Neptune varies from 1,353,600 to 9,623,700 kilometers.
Nereid's odd orbit indicates that it may be a captured asteroid or Kuiper Belt object.

Difficulties:-
1-We know next to nothing about Nereid.

2-How did Nereid come to be in such an odd orbit?

3-We know next to nothing about Larissa.

4-We know next to nothing about Proteus.

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Last Modified : 5 Sep. 2001
Created By#C0115361 Team