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Inner Moons of Neptune

Inner Moons of Neptune
This illustration was composed from numerous separate Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 images. A color image composed of exposures made through three color filters shows the disk of Neptune, revealing clouds in its atmosphere. Forty-eight individual images from a single filter were brightened to reveal the very faint moons and composited with the color image. The white dots are Neptune's inner moons moving along their orbits during Hubble's observations. The solid green lines trace the full orbit of each moon. The spacing of the moon images follows the timing of each Hubble exposure. Triton, in the lower left corner, is the brightest of the moons seen in these images, farthest from the planet, and moves in a counter-clockwise sense in this view. Next closest to Neptune is Proteus, followed by Larissa, Galatea and Despina, all of which move clockwise in this view, opposite to Triton's (retrograde) motion. About 30 moons are known to orbit Neptune, most of which are too faint or orbit too far away to appear in these images. Note that in this Hubble image, Neptune and its moon system are viewed from the south pole.

About the Object

  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    The semi-major axis of Neptune's orbit about the Sun is 30.06 astronomical units (roughly 2.8 billion miles or 4.5 billion kilometers).
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Neptune has a diameter of roughly 30,800 miles (49,600 kilometers) at the equator.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    This image was created from HST data from proposal 12675: K. Noll, Z. Levay, M. Livio, C. Christian, H. Bond, L. Frattare, M. Mutchler, T. Borders, and W. Januszewski (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI).
  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    June 25-26, 2011, Exposure Time: 36 minutes
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F467N (46nm), F631N (63nm), and F845M (84nm)
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Neptune
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Planet
  • Release Date
    July 12, 2011
  • Science Release
    Neptune Completes Its First Circuit Around The Sun Since Its Discovery
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Illustration: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)

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Inner Moons of Neptune
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using three different filters. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F467N (46nm) Green: F631N (63nm) Red/orange: F845M (84nm)

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov