Galatea

Galatea — moon orbiting Neptune, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Galatea in a live 3D Solar System. Follow its calculated motion and inspect real astronomical data, distances and orbital facts.

Galatea orbits about 1,000 km inside the Adams ring. That ring holds bright clumps of material called arcs, which should have smeared out round the ring long ago; a gravitational rhythm with Galatea is the most likely reason they have not.

Radius

79 km

Orbit

62k km from Neptune

Period

0.43 days

Discovered

1989 — Voyager 2

Lives

Just inside the Adams ring, Neptune’s brightest

Ring arcs

Its pull is the likeliest reason the Adams ring’s clumps stay bunched

Shape

About 204 × 184 × 144 km; drawn as a sphere

Explore Galatea in 3D

Cosmoscope places Galatea in the Solar System using astronomical ephemeris or orbital elements, updated for the simulation time. Explore its calculated motion, distance and orbital facts in the interactive 3D view. Accuracy depends on the orbital model and its valid time range.