14th moon orbiting Neptune
Posted on: 18/Jul/2013 10:27:52 AM
NASA said that an astronomer studying archived images of Neptune taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has found a 14th moon orbiting the planet, NASA said on Monday. Estimated to be about 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, the moon is located about 65,400 miles (105,251 km) from Neptune. The newly found moon, designated S/2004 N 1, is located between Larissa and Proteus. It orbits Neptune in 23 hours.
Neptune`s largest moon, Triton, was discovered in 1846, just days after the planet itself was found. Nereid, Neptune`s third largest moon was found in 1949.
Images taken by NASA`s Voyager 2 spacecraft unveiled the second largest moon, Proteus, and five smaller moons, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea and Larissa.
Ground-based telescopes found Halimede, Laomedeia, Sao and Nestor in 2002. Sister moon Psamathe turned up a year later.
