Thalassa (moon)
Thalassa is the second
moon of
Neptune.
Thalassa was named after a daughter of
Aether and
Hemera from
Greek mythology.
"Thalassa" is also the
Greek word for "
sea".
It was discovered in
1989 by
Voyager 2.
It is irregularly shaped and shows no sign of any geological modification.
Since its orbit is below Neptune's synchronous orbit radius it is slowly decaying due to
tidal forces and will one day break up into a
planetary ring or impact on Neptune's surface.
- Orbital radius: 50,000 km
- Diameter: 80 km
- Mass: Unknown
- Orbital period: 7 hours, 30 minutes (0.311485 days)
- Orbital inclination: 0.21°