Galatea (moon)
Galatea is the fourth known
moon of
Neptune, named after the
Nereid of
Greek legend. It was discovered in
1989 by
Voyager 2 and very little is known about it. It is irregularly shaped and shows no sign of any geological modification. Since its orbit is below Neptune's synchronous orbit radius it is slowly decaying due to
tidal forces and will one day break up into a
planetary ring or impact on Neptune's surface.
- Orbital radius: 62,000 km
- Mean diameter: 176 km
- Mass: Unknown
- Orbital period: 0.428745 days
- Orbital inclination: 0.05°