Article Posted on : - Jul 17, 2013

Distant planet Neptune. A Hubble photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): NASA's Hubble space telescope has spotted a new moon orbiting the distant planet Neptune.

The moon, designated S/2004 N 1, is the fourteenth moon of the blue-green giant planet. It is estimated to be no more than 12 miles across, making it the smallest known moon in the Neptunian system.

The tiny moon, appearing like a white dot and located between the orbits of the Neptunian moons Larissa and Proteus, completes one revolution around Neptune every 23 hours.

It is so small and dim that it is roughly 100 million times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the naked eye. It even escaped detection by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew past Neptune in 1989 and surveyed the planet's system of moons and rings.