Galatea
Moon· orbits Neptune
Galatea — moon of Neptune.
Open in 3D viewSee Galatea in the live, interactive 3D map
Key facts
Mass (est.)
2.85 × 10¹⁸ kg
0.0000388 Moon masses
Radius
79 km
5% of our Moon's radius
Surface gravity
0.0304 m/s²
0% of Earth's gravity
Orbit around Neptune
10.3 hours
0.43 Earth days
Science
Physical
- Mass (estimated)
- 2.85 × 10¹⁸ kg · 0.0000388 Moon masses
- Estimated from its size and an assumed density (~1.4 g/cm3); the GM is not dynamically constrained, so this is not a measurement. Source: JPL SSD Planetary Satellite Physical Parameters (GM NEP097).
- Radius
- 79 km · 5% of our Moon's radius
- JPL SSD Planetary Satellite Physical Parameters (mean radius)
- Surface gravity
- 0.0304 m/s² · 0% of Earth's gravity
- Estimated from the estimated mass and radius
- Escape velocity
- 69.3 m/s · 1% of Earth's escape velocity
- Estimated from the estimated mass and radius
Orbit around Neptune
- Distance from Neptune
- 62,000 km
- From JPL orbital elements
- Orbital period
- 10.29 hours
- From JPL orbital elements
- Eccentricity
- 0
- From JPL orbital elements
- Inclination to Neptune's Laplace plane
- 0.00 °
- From JPL orbital elements · The Laplace plane is the one a moon's orbit precesses about: close in it is the planet's equatorial plane, the plane of the rings, and further out it tilts toward the planet's own orbit.
Radiation & temperature
- Insolation
- 0.00112 S⊕ · 1/893 of the sunlight Earth receives
- Computed from the distance to the Sun (inverse-square; Earth's sunlight = 1), before any atmosphere.
Discovery & history
- By
- Voyager Science Team
Galatea was discovered in 1989 by Voyager Science Team. Neptune's moons are named after sea deities and nymphs of Greek mythology. Beyond its discovery and naming, little more about it has been individually recorded.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image