Sao
Moon· orbits Neptune
Sao is a moon orbiting Neptune.
Open in 3D viewSee Sao in the live, interactive 3D map
Key facts
Radius
22 km
1% of our Moon's radius
Orbit around Neptune
7.97 Earth years
2,912 Earth days
Science
Physical
- Radius (estimated)
- 22 km · 1% of our Moon's radius
- Sized from its brightness assuming a dark (~0.04) surface — never resolved, so the true diameter (~44 km) could be off by a factor of two.
Orbit around Neptune
- Distance from Neptune
- 0.148 AU
- From JPL orbital elements
- Orbital period
- 7.97 years
- From JPL orbital elements
- Eccentricity
- 0.1382
- From JPL orbital elements
- Inclination to the J2000 equator
- 67.03 °
- From JPL orbital elements
Radiation & temperature
- Insolation
- 0.00112 S⊕ · 1/891 of the sunlight Earth receives
- Computed from the distance to the Sun (inverse-square; Earth's sunlight = 1), before any atmosphere.
Discovery & history
- By
- T. Grav, M. Holman, J. Kavelaars, W. Fraser, D. Milisavljevic
Sao was discovered in 2002 by T. Grav and colleagues. 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
No resolved image of this moon has been released: telescopes and passing spacecraft have recorded it only as a faint point of light.