Larissa (moon)
Larissa (or
Larisa) is the fifth of
Neptune's known
moonss. It was discovered by
Harold Reitsema based on ground-based stellar occultation observations, and was photographed by
Voyager 2 in
1989. Larissa is irregular (non-spherical) in shape and appears to be heavily cratered, with no sign of any geological modification. Little else is known about it. 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: 73,600 km
- Diameter: 193 km (208 × 178)
- Mass: Unknown
- Orbital period: 0.554654 days
- Orbital inclination: 0.20°