MoonsOfNeptune

=The Moons of Neptune=

Naiad:


====Naiad is the closest moon to Neptune at 23 200km away from the clouds of Neptune. Naiad is 54km in diameter and very irregularly shaped maybe because it does not have enough gravity to make it a sphere. Naiad was discovered by the Voyager 2 probes' fly by in 1989. It takes Naiad 7hours and 6min to rotate once on it's axis.====

Thalassa:


====Thalassa is the second moon of Neptune, 25 200km away from the top most clouds of Neptune. At 80km in diameter this is a small moon and because it is so small it does not have enough gravity to make it a nice sphere. Thalassa was discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 space probes' fly by. It takes 7hours and 30min to rotate on it's axis.====

Despina:


====Despina is the third moon of Neptune. Despina may be rubble from Neptune's older satellites that were smashed up with Titan's capture. Despina is orbiting just outside Thalassa's orbit but is slowly spiralling down to Neptune. It orbits 52 526km away from the centre of Neptune. Despina is 148km in diameter, a bit bigger than the first two but still not big enough to make a sphere. Despina was also discovered by the Voyager 2's fly by in 1989.====

Galatea:


====Galatea is the fourth moon of Neptune. Galatea is 37 200km away from Neptune's highest clouds. Galatea is pretty much the same as Despina in how it was made but Galatea has the dimensions of 102km x 92km x 72km. Again Galatea was discovered in Voyager 2's fly by in 1989. Galatea is also slowly spiralling down to Neptune. It takes Galatea 10hours and 18min to rotate on it's axis.====

Larissa:


====Larissa is the fifth moon of Neptune. Larissa is 48 800km away from Neptune's top most clouds. Larissa is 190km in diameter and it is not a nice sphere like the Earth but is more like a stone, because it is not big enough to squish it self in to a sphere. It takes Larissa 13hours and18min to rotate on it's axis. Larissa was discovered in 1989 from Voyager 2's fly by.====

Proteus:


This is an image of Proteus ====Proteus is the sixth moon of Neptune. Proteus is 177 629km away from Neptune's highest clouds. Proteus has a diameter of 420km, the biggest so far. Even Proteus is not big enough to pull it self into a sphere. Proteus was discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2's fly by.====

Triton:


====Triton, Neptune's seventh moon is the biggest moon in Neptune's orbit, at 2706km in diameter. Triton orbits 354 800km above Neptune's clouds. Because Triton is so large it was discovered in 1846 one week after the discovery of Neptune. Triton has a retrograde orbit, this means it orbits around the opposite way that Neptune does (retrograde orbit). Triton has methane lakes on it's surface.====

Nereid:


This is a screen shot of Nereid from a program called celestia ====Nereid is the eighth moon of Neptune. It is 340km in diameter and orbits Neptune at a height of 5 513 400km from it's centre. It takes Nereid 13.6 hours to rotate once on it's axis. Nereid was discovered in 1949 by an Earth based telescope. There has been water ice found on the surface of Nereid.====

**Halimede:**


This is a screen shot of Halimede from a program called celestia ====Halimede is the ninth moon of Neptune. It is a relatively small moon at just 62km in diameter. Halimede is 15 686 000km away from Neptune's core. It takes 1879.08 Earth days for Halimede to orbit around Neptune once. Halimede might be a fragment from Nereid, another moon. Halimede was discovered in 2002. ====

Sao:


This is a screen shot of Sao from a program called celestia ====Sao is the tenth moon of Neptune. Sao is 48km in diameter and orbits Neptune 22 452 000km from Neptune's middle. It takes Sao 2918.9 days to go round Neptune. Sao was discovered in 2002 and named in 2007.====

Laomedeia:
====Laomedeia is the eleventh moon of Neptune. It is 48km in diameter and orbits Neptune 22 580 000km away from Neptune's core. It takes Laomedeia 2982.3 days to orbit Neptune once. Laomedeia was discovered in 2002 and named in 2007.====

Neso:
====Neso is Neptune's twelfth moon. It is 60km in diameter and orbits Neptune 46 570 000km away from Neptune's core. It takes Neso 8663.1 days to orbit Neptune once but it orbits the opposite way to most others and Neptune's orbit. Neso was discovered in 2002 and named in 2007.====

Psamathe:
==== Psamathe is Neptune's thirteenth moon. It is 28km in diameter and orbits Neptune 46 738 000km away from Neptune's core. It takes Psamathe 9136.1 days to orbit Neptune once. Like Triton and Neso, Psmathe has a retrograde orbit, orbiting the opposite way to it's planet Neptune. Psamathe was discovered in 2003. ====

Conclusion:
====Most of Neptune's thirteen moons are not fully known and we are still very hazy on some things because some are so small. Because they are so small some were only discovered in 2003 while others were discovered back when the telescope was invented by Galileo in 1846.====

References:
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []