Galatea (moon)

Galatea

Discovery
Discovered by	Stephen P. Synnott
Discovered in	July 1989
Orbitalcharacteristics
Epoch18 August 1989
Semi-major axis	61 953 ± 1km
Orbital eccentricity	0.00004 ± 0.00009
Orbital period	0.42874431 ± 0.00000001 d
Inclination	0.052 ± 0.011° (to Neptune equator) 0.06° (to localLaplace plane)
Is amoonof	Neptune
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	204×184×144 km (±~10 km)
Mass	2.12 ± 0.08×1018kg
Meandensity	0.75 ± 0.1 g/cm3
Rotation period	assumedsynchronous
Axial tilt	~zero presumably
Albedo(geometric)	0.08
Surfacetemp.	~51Kmean (estimate)
Atmosphere	none

There is also anasteroidcalled74 Galatea.

GalateaorNeptune VI,is the fourth closestmoon to Neptune.It is named afterGalatea,one of theNereidsofGreek legend.

Galatea was found in late July 1989 from the images taken by theVoyager 2probe.It was given the designationS/1989 N 4.The discovery was said (IAUC 4824) on August 2, 1989, but the text only talks of "10 frames taken over 5 days", giving a discovery date of sometime before July 28. The name was given on 16 September 1991.

It is not asphereand shows no sign of any geological changes.

Other websites

Media related toGalatea (moon)at Wikimedia Commons

• Galatea ProfileArchived2007-08-01 at theWayback MachinebyNASA's Solar System Exploration