Nereid, the last satellite of Neptune to be discovered before Voyager's recent discoveries, was first seen by Gerard Kuiper in 1949. Until this Voyager 2 image was obtained, all that was known about Nereid was its orbital parameters and intrinsic brightness. This Voyager view of Nereid was obtained on Aug. 24, 1989 at a distance of 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles). With a resolution of 43 kilometers (26.6 miles) per pixel, this image has sufficient detail to show the overall size and albedo. Nereid is about 170 kilometers (105 miles) across and reflects about 12 percent of the incident light.
The Voyager Mission is conducted by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
Name | Value | Additional Values |
---|---|---|
Target | Nereid | Neptune |
System | Neptune | |
Target Type | Satellite | Irregular, Planet |
Mission | Voyager | |
Instrument Host | Voyager 2 | |
Host Type | Flyby Spacecraft | |
Instrument | ||
Detector | ||
Extra Keywords | Grayscale | |
Acquisition Date | ||
Release Date | 1996-01-29 | |
Date in Caption | 1989-08-24 | |
Image Credit | NASA/JPL | |
Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00054 | |
Identifier | PIA00054 |