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Naiad, the closest regular moon, is also the second smallest among the inner moons (following the discovery of Hippocamp), whereas Proteus is the largest regular moon and the second largest moon of Neptune. The first five moons orbit much faster than Neptune's rotation itself ranging from 7 hours for Naiad and Thalassa, to 13 hours for Larissa.
Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be rounded under its own gravity and hosts a thin, hazy atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit—revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation—the only large moon in the Solar System to do so.
An annotated picture of Neptune's many moons as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright blue diffraction star is Triton, Neptune's largest moon. Neptune has 16 known moons. [154] Triton is the largest Neptunian moon, accounting for more than 99.5% of the mass in orbit around Neptune, [i] and is the only one massive enough to be ...
Along with its bright rings, the Webb observatory spied Neptune's fainter dust bands and seven of the planet's 14 known moons. The last time Neptune's rings were seen in detail was during a flyby ...
[16]: 1 However, it is unlikely that these moons represent Neptune's original regular moon system, as Triton's capture would have been severely destructive to any pre-existing moons around Neptune. Following Triton's capture into a highly eccentric orbit, perturbations would begin to raise the eccentricity of the primordial moons, potentially ...
Proteus is the second-largest moon of Neptune and is the largest of its regular prograde moons. It is about 420 km (260 mi) in diameter, larger than Nereid, Neptune's third-largest moon. It was not discovered by Earth-based telescopes because Proteus orbits so close to Neptune that it is lost in the glare of reflected sunlight. [15]
Nereid, or Neptune II, is the third-largest moon of Neptune. It has the most eccentric orbit of all known moons in the Solar System . [ 4 ] It was the second moon of Neptune to be discovered, by Gerard Kuiper in 1949.
Galatea / ɡ æ l ə ˈ t iː ə /, also known as Neptune VI, is the fourth-closest inner moon of Neptune, and fifth-largest moon of Neptune. It is named after Galatea , one of the fifty Nereids of Greek legend , with whom Cyclops Polyphemus was vainly in love.