Galatea (moon)

Galatea ("GAL uh TEE uh") 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 Neptune.

Not to be confused with the asteroid 74 Galatea.

Orbital radius: 61,593 km
Mean diameter: 176 km
Mass: 3.7×10¹⁸ kg
Orbital period: 0.429 d
Orbital inclination: 0.062°

... | Despina | Galatea | Larissa | ...

Neptune
Naiad \| Thalassa \| Despina \| Galatea \| Larissa \| Proteus \| Triton
Nereid \| S/2002 N 1's group \| S/2002 N 2's group \| S/2002 N 4's group
(For other moons, see: Neptune's natural satellites)

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