Vital Statistics for Neptune’s Rings and Inner Satellites
Rings of Neptune
| Feature |
Middle Boundary (km) |
Width |
Optical Depth |
Notes |
| Galle |
42,000 |
2,000 |
10^-4 |
A faint and poorly understood ring. |
| Le Verrier |
53,200 |
< 100 |
10^-2 |
A narrow, axisymmetric ring. |
| Lassell |
55,200 |
4,000 |
10^-4 |
A uniform, faint ring extending outward from Le Verrier. |
| Arago |
57,200 |
|
|
A brightness enhancement at the outer edge of Lassell. |
| Unnamed |
61,953 |
|
|
A ring of dust in the orbit of Galatea. |
| Adams |
62,933 |
15 |
0.01 to 0.1 |
A narrow ring containing the arcs. It shows a radial wiggles due to perturbations from nearby Galatea. |
Inner Satellites of Neptune
| Name |
Semimajor Axis (km) |
Period (days) |
Eccentricity |
Inclination (deg) |
Mean Radius (km) |
Mass (10^20 kg) |
| Naiad |
48,227 |
0.294396 |
0.000 |
4.74 |
29 |
|
| Thalassa |
50,075 |
0.311485 |
0.000 |
0.21 |
40 |
|
| Despina |
52,526 |
0.334655 |
0.000 |
0.07 |
74 |
|
| Galatea |
61,953 |
0.428745 |
0.000 |
0.05 |
79 |
|
| Larissa |
73,548 |
0.554654 |
0.000 |
0.2 |
94 |
|
| Proteus |
117,647 |
1.122315 |
0.000 |
0.55 |
209 |
|
| Triton |
354,760 |
5.876854 |
0.0004 |
156.834 |
1353 |
215 |
| Nereid |
5,513,400 |
360.13619 |
0.7512 |
7.23 |
170 |
|
From Murray, C. D., and S. F. Dermott 1999. Solar System Dynamics, Cambridge
University Press.