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Neptunes Moons
Neptune has 13 known moons. The
largest by far is Triton, discovered by William
Lassell just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune
itself. Distinct to all other large planetary
moons, it has a retrograde and synchronous orbit.
Triton is the coldest object that has been measured
in our solar system, and it is slowly spiraling
toward Neptune. Neptune's second satellite, Nereid,
has one of the most eccentric orbits of any satellite
in the solar system.
Voyager 2 discovered six new Neptunian moons
from July to September 1989. Of these, the
irregularly shaped Proteus is prominent for
being as large as a body of its density can
be without being pulled into a spherical shape
by its own gravity. Neptune's first four moons,
Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galatea orbit
close enough to be within Neptune's rings.
The next farthest out, Larissa was originally
discovered in 1981 when it had blocked a star.
This was credited to ring arcs, but when Voyager
2 observed Neptune in 1989, it was found to
have been caused by the moon. |
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Five new uneven moons were announced
in 2004.They were discovered in 2002 and 2003.
Trojan
Asteroids of Neptune
There are two known Trojan asteroids
of Neptune which have the same orbital period
as Neptune and lie in the elongated, curved region
around the L4 Lagrangian point 60° ahead of
Neptune.
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