Galatea
Galatea is a moon orbiting the planet Neptune.
Facts About Galatea:
- Galatea is the 4th moon from Neptune.
- It was discovered in July 1989 from photographs taken by the Voyager 2 space probe.
- It has an irregular shape and appears to be a rubble pile.
- It appears to be a shepherd moon for Neptune's Adams ring.
- Its orbit is decaying and eventually it will either crash into Neptune's atmosphere or break apart into a small ring system.
Classification: Moon (orbiting Neptune)
Names: Galatea, Neptune VI, S/1989 N4
Discovered: 1989 by Voyager Science Team
Naming: Named after Galatea, one of the Greek mythological Nereids.
Magnitude: 21.9000 (app)
Diameter: 174.8 km
Mass: 2.12e+18 kg
Semi-major axis: 61,952.57 km
Orbital Period: 0.42874431 Earth days
Eccentricity: 0.00022000
Albedo: 0.0800
Volume: 2800000 km3
Density: 0.7500 g/cm3
Escape Velocity: 0.0560 km/s
Adjective: Galatean