The Solar System The Inner Planets The Outer Planets Inner and Outer Planets Compared Solar System Formation Table of Planets Solar System's Largest Objects Space A to Z Your Weight in Space Stars Galaxies The Milky Way
The Inner Planets The Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars
The Outer Planets The Moon Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Dwarf Planets Ceres Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris Comets Small BODIES Halley Hale-Bopp Shoemaker-Levy Asteroids Meteors
Exploring Space The Space Shuttle Voyager Space Missions List Astronomy Famous Astronomers History of Astronomy Hubble Space Telescope James Webb Telescope
Space A to Z Your Weight in Space Useful Links Contact Us Bob the Alien on Facebook Bob the Alien on Twitter
Neptune Menu  

Despina, a moon of Neptune

Thalassa
Despina
Galatea

Classification
Natural satellite of Neptune
Average distance from Neptune
52,526 km
32,638 miles
Diameter across equator
156 km
97 miles
Time to orbit Neptune
8 hours
Year of Discovery
1989
Origin of Name
Water nymph in Greek mythology, daughter of Poseidon (Neptune), the god of the seas.

Despina is a small moon of Neptune. It is one of Neptune's inner moons and is the third closest moon to orbit the planet. Despina has a diameter of approximately 156 kilometres (97 miles). It orbits Neptune at a distance of just over 52,500 kilometres (32,600 miles). A length of an orbit takes only eight hours which means that it orbits Neptune faster than the planet spins.

Despina orbits very closely to one of Neptune's rings, its Le Verrier ring. It is considered to be a shepherd moon, a moon which holds the materials in the ring in place.

Despina is believed to be the fragments of an earlier moon that was destroyed when Neptune captured its largest moon Triton. Parts of that destroyed moon joined back together to form Despina and some of Neptune's other inner moons.

It is thought that Despina itself will be destroyed at some point in its very distant future. Its orbit is likely to decay which will bring it closer and closer to Neptune until it either falls into Neptune's atmosphere or gets torn apart by gravitational forces. It will possibly form a ring.

Why is Despina called Despina?

Despina was named by the International Astronomical Union and received its name on 16th September 1991. It gets its name from Despoina, a water nymph in Greek mythology. Despoina is the daughter of Poseidon (the Greek equivalent of Neptune) and Demeter.

As Neptune is the Roman god of the sea, all of its moons have water-related names.

Before it received its official name, Despina was identified as S/1989 N 3. It may also be referred to as Neptune V.


Thalassa
Despina
Galatea
Twitter X logo Facebook logo Email icon
© 2000 - 2024 SULTANA BARBECUE