There are 16 known moons of the planet Neptune, fourteen of which are named after water deities and creatures in Greek mythology. The largest is Triton, discovered by William Lassell on 10 October 184
Orbit diagram of Neptune's inner moons, including Triton, with their names and orbit directions indicated
Irregular satellites of all four giant planets, plotted by average distance from their planet (semi-major axis in Hill radii) and orbital inclination (degrees with respect to ecliptic). Irregular moons of Neptune are plotted as blue diamonds. Data as of February 2024.
Proteus, also known as Neptune VIII, is the second-largest moon of Neptune and the planet's largest inner satellite. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989, it is named after Proteus, the shape-shifting sea
Moons of Neptune
…discovery of Neptune itself. Over a century passed before the discovery of the second natural satellite, Nereid, in 1949, and another 40 years before Proteus, Neptune's second-largest moon, was discovered in 1989. Triton is unique among moons of planetary mass in that its orbit is retrograde to Neptune's…
Processed grayscale image of Proteus from Voyager 2, August 1989 (image processing date). The massive crater Pharos occupies much of the upper right, straddling Proteus's terminator
Voyager 2, the space probe that discovered Proteus
Proteus compared to 1 Ceres and the Moon
Voyager 2 image of Proteus, digitally processed showing surface features