The moons of Neptune

9 September 2015, by Matt Williams

The first was Nereid, Neptune's second largest and

most massive moon, which was discovered on May
1st, 1949, by Gerard P. Kuiper (for whom the
Kuiper Belt is named) using photographic plates
from the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis,
Texas. The third moon, later named Larissa, was
first observed by Harold J. Reitsema, William B.
Hubbard, Larry A. Lebofsky and David J. Tholen on
May 24th, 1981.

The discovery of this moon was purely fortuitous,

and occurred as a result of the ongoing search for
rings similar to those discovered around Uranus
four years earlier. If rings were in fact present, the
Neptune and its moons. Credit: NASA star's luminosity would decrease slightly just before
the planet's closest approach. While observing a
star's close approach to Neptune, the star's
luminosity dipped, but only for several seconds.
Neptune, that icy gas giant that is the eight planet This indicated the presence of a moon rather than a
from our Sun, was discovered in 1846 by two ring.
astronomers – Urbain Le Verrier and Johann Galle.
In keeping with the convention of planetary No further moons were found until Voyager 2 flew
nomenclature, Neptune was named after the by Neptune in 1989. In the course of passing
Roman god of the sea (the equivalent to the Greek through the system, the space probe rediscovered
Poseidon). And just seventeen days after it was Larissa and discovered five additional inner moons:
discovered, astronomers began to notice that it too Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea and Proteus.
had a system of moons.
In 2001, two surveys using large ground-based
Initially, only Triton – Neptune's largest moon – telescopes – the Cerro Tololo Inter-American
could be observed. But by the mid-20th century Observatory and the Canada-France-Hawaii
and after, thanks to improvements in ground-based telescopes – found five additional outer moons
telescopes and the development of robotic space bringing the total to thirteen. Follow-up surveys by
probes, many more moons would be discovered. two teams in 2002 and 2003 respectively re-
Neptune now has 14 recognized satellites, and in observed all five of these moons – which were
honor of of their parent planet, all are named for Halimede, Sao, Psamathe, Laomedeia, and Neso.
minor water deities in Greek mythology.
And then on July 15th, 2013, a team of
Discovery and Naming: astronomers led by Mark R. Showalter of the SETI
Institute revealed that they had discovered a
Triton, being the largest and most massive of previously unknown fourteenth moon in images
Neptune's moons, was the first to be discovered. It taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from
was observed by William Lassell on October 10th, 2004–2009. The as yet unnamed fourteenth moon,
1846, just seventeen days after Neptune was currently identified as S/2004 N 1, is thought to
discovered. It would be almost a century before measure no more than 16–20 km in diameter.
any other moons would be discovered.
In keeping with astronomical convention, Neptune's

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moons are all taken from Greek and Roman
mythology. In this case, all are named for gods of
the sea, or for the children of Poseidon (which
include Triton, Proteus, Depsina and Thalassa),
minor Greek water dieties (Naiad and Nereid) or
Nereids , the water nymphs in Greek mythology
(Halimede, Galatea, Neso, Sao, Laomedeia and
Psamathe).

However, many of the moons were not officially

named until the 20th century. The name Triton,
which was originally suggested by Camille
Flammarion in his 1880 book Astronomie Populaire
, but not into common usage until at least the
1930s. Hubble Space Telescope composite picture showing the
location of a newly discovered moon, designated S/2004
Inner (Regular) Moons: N 1. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI
Institute).
Neptune's Regular Moons are those located closest
to the planet and which follow circular prograde
orbits that lie in the planet's equatorial plane. They
are, in order of distance from Neptune: Naiad Based on observational data and assumed
(48,227 km), Thalassa (50,074 km), Despina densities, Naiad measures 96 × 60 × 52 km and
(52,526 km), Galatea (61,953 km), Larissa (73,548 weighs approximately 1.9 x 1017 kg. Meanwhile,
km), S/2004 N 1 (105,300 ± 50 km), and Proteus Thalassa measures 108 x 100 × 52 km and weighs
(117,646 km). All but the outer two are within 3.5 x 1017 kg; Despina measures 180 x 148 x 128
Neptune-synchronous orbit (meaning that orbit and weighs 21 x 1017 kg; Galatea measures 204 x
Neptune slower than it's orbital period (0.6713 184 x 144 and weighs 37.5 x 1017 kg; Larissa
days) and thus are being tidally decelerated. measures 216 x 204 x 168 and weighs 49.5 x 1017
kg; S/2004 N1 measures 16-20 km in diameter and
The inner moons are closely associated with weighs 0.5 ± 0.4 x 1017 kg; and Proteus measures
Neptune's narrow ring system. The two innermost 436 x 416 x 402 and weighs 50.35 x 1017 kg.
satellites, Naiad and Thalassa, orbit between the
Galle and LeVerrier rings, whereas Despina orbits Only the two largest regular moons have been
just inside the LeVerrier ring. The next moon, imaged with a resolution sufficient to discern their
Galatea, orbits just inside the most prominent shapes and surface features. Nevertheless, with
Adams ring and its gravity helps maintaining the the exception of Larissa and Proteus (which are
ring by containing its particles. largely rounded) all of Neptune's inner moons are
believed to be elongated in shape. In addition, all
the inner moons dark objects, with geometric
albedo ranging from 7 to 10%.

Their spectra also indicated that they are made

from water ice contaminated by some very dark
material, probably organic compounds. In this
respect, the inner Neptunian moons are similar to
the inner moons of Uranus.

Outer (Irregular) Moons:

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Neptune's irregular moons consist of the planet's enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium (i.e. is
remaining satellites (including Triton). They spherical in shape). At a distance of 354,759 km
generally follow inclined eccentric and often from Neptune, it also sits between the planet's inner
retrograde orbits far from Neptune; the only and outer moons.
exception is Triton, which orbits close to the planet
following a circular orbit, though retrograde and Triton follows a retrograde and quasi-circular orbit,
inclined. and is composed largely of nitrogen, methane,
carbon dioxide and water ices. With a geometric
In order of their distance from the planet, the albedo of more than 70% and a Bond albedo as
irregular moons are Triton, Nereid, Halimede, Sao, high as 90%, it is also one of the brightest objects
Laomedeia, Neso and Psamathe, a group that in the Solar System. The surface has a reddish tint,
includes both prograde and retrograde objects. owning to the interaction of ultraviolet radiation and
With the exception of Triton and Nereid, Neptune's methane, causing tholins.
irregular moons are similar to those of other giant
planets and are believed to have been Triton is also one of the coldest moons in the Solar
gravitationally captured by Neptune. System, with surface temperature of about 38 K
(235.2 °C). However, owing to the moon being
In terms of size and mass, the irregular moons are geologically active (which results in cryovolcanism)
relatively consistent, ranging from approximately 40 and surface temperature variations that cause
km in diameter and 4 x 1016 kg in mass (Psamathe) sublimation, Triton is one of only two moons in the
to 62 km and 16 x 1016 kg for Halimede. Solar System that has a substantial atmosphere.
Much like it's surface, this atmosphere is composed
Triton and Nereid: primarily of nitrogen with small amounts of methane
and carbon monoxide, and with an estimated
Triton and Nereid are unusual irregular satellites pressure of about 14 ?bar.
and are thus treated separately from the other five
irregular Neptunian moons. Between these two and Triton has a relatively high density of about 2 g/cm3
the other irregular moons, four major differences indicating that rocks constitute about two thirds of
have been noted. its mass, and ices (mainly water ice) the remaining
one third. There also may be a layer of liquid water
First of all, they are the largest two known irregular deep inside Triton, forming a subterranean ocean.
moons in the Solar System. Triton itself is almost Surface features include the large southern polar
an order of magnitude larger than all other known cap, older cratered planes cross-cut by graben and
irregular moons and comprises more than 99.5% of scarps, as well as youthful features caused by
all the mass known to orbit Neptune (including the endogenic resurfacing.
planet's rings and thirteen other known moons).
Because of its retrograde orbit and relative
Secondly, they both have atypically small semi- proximity to Neptune (closer than the Moon is to
major axes, with Triton's being over an order of Earth), Triton is grouped with the planet's irregular
magnitude smaller than those of all other known moons (see below). In addition, it is believed to be
irregular moons. Thirdly, they both have unusual a captured object, possibly a dwarf planet that was
orbital eccentricities: Nereid has one of the most once part of the Kuiper Belt. At the same time,
eccentric orbits of any known irregular satellite, and these orbital characteristics are the reason why
Triton's orbit is a nearly perfect circle. Finally, Triton experiences tidal deceleration. and will
Nereid also has the lowest inclination of any known eventually spiral inward and collide with the planet
irregular satellite in about 3.6 billion years.

With a mean diameter of around 2700 km and a Nereid is the third-largest moon of Neptune. It has
mass of 214080 ± 520 x 1017 kg, Triton is the a prograde but very eccentric orbit and is believed
largest of Neptune's moons, and the only one large to be a former regular satellite that was scattered to

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its current orbit through gravitational interactions
during Triton's capture. Water ice has been
spectroscopically detected on its surface. Nereid
shows large, irregular variations in its visible
magnitude, which are probably caused by forced
precession or chaotic rotation combined with an
elongated shape and bright or dark spots on the
surface.

Formation:

Given the lopsided distribution of mass in its

moons, it is widely believed that Triton was
captured after the formation of Neptune's original
satellite system – much of which would have been
destroyed in the process of capture. Many theories
have been offered regarding the mechanisms of its
capture over the years.
Global Color Mosaic of Triton, taken by Voyager 2 in
The most widely-accepted is that Triton is a 1989. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
surviving member of a binary Kuiper Belt Object
that was disrupted with an encounter with Neptune.
In this scenario, Triton's captured was the result of
a three-body encounter, where it fell into a Numerical simulations show that there is a 0.41
retrograde orbit while the other object was either probability that the moon Halimede collided with
destroyed or ejected in the process. Nereid at some time in the past. Although it is not
known whether any collision has taken place, both
Triton's orbit upon capture would have been highly moons appear to have similar ("grey") colors,
eccentric, and would have caused chaotic implying that Halimede could be a fragment of
perturbations in the orbits of the original inner Nereid.
Neptunian satellites, causing them to collide and
reduce to a disc of rubble. Only after Triton's orbit Given its distance from the Sun, the only mission to
became circular again could some of the rubble re- ever study Neptune and its moons up close was the
accrete into the present-day regular moons. This Voyager 2 mission. And though no missions are
means it is likely that Neptune's present inner currently being planned, several proposals have
satellites are not the original bodies that formed been made that would see a robotic probe
with Neptune. dispatched to the system sometime in the late
2020s or early 2030s.

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 Using the CRIRES instrument on ESO’s Very Large
Telescope, a team of astronomers has been able to see
that the summer is in full swing in Triton’s southern
hemisphere. Credit: ESO

Source: Universe Today

APA citation: The moons of Neptune (2015, September 9) retrieved 2 June 2019 from
https://phys.org/news/2015-09-moons-neptune.html

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