Galatea (moon)
Galatea or Neptune VI, is the fourth closest moon to Neptune. It is named after Galatea, one of the Nereids of Greek legend.
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Stephen P. Synnott |
Discovered in | July 1989 |
Orbital characteristics | |
Semi-major axis | 61 953 ± 1 km |
Orbital eccentricity | 0.00004 ± 0.00009 |
Orbital period | 0.42874431 ± 0.00000001 d |
Inclination | 0.052 ± 0.011° (to Neptune equator) 0.06° (to local Laplace plane) |
Is a moon of | Neptune |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 204×184×144 km (±~10 km) |
Mass | 2.12 ± 0.08 ×1018 kg |
Mean density | 0.75 ± 0.1 g/cm3 |
Rotation period | assumed synchronous |
Axial tilt | ~zero presumably |
Albedo (geometric) | 0.08 |
Surface temp. | ~51 K mean (estimate) |
Atmosphere | none |
- There is also an asteroid called 74 Galatea.
Galatea was found in late July 1989 from the images taken by the Voyager 2 probe. It was given the designation S/1989 N 4. The discovery was said (IAUC 4824) on August 2, 1989, but the text only talks of "10 frames taken over 5 days", giving a discovery date of sometime before July 28. The name was given on 16 September 1991.
It is not a sphere and shows no sign of any geological changes.
Galatea (moon) Media
Other websites
Media related to Galatea (moon) at Wikimedia Commons
- Galatea Profile Archived 2007-08-01 at the Wayback Machine by NASA's Solar System Exploration