On May 1, 1949, Neptune's moon Nereid was discovered by the Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper.
This was the second of 14 moons discovered at Neptune. It was also the last one to be discovered with certainty before NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune in 1989. Astronomers suspected they had observed a third moon before, but it wasn't actually seen until the Voyager 2 mission. Kuiper spotted Nereid using an 82-inch reflector telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. He decided to name it after the sea nymphs in Greek Mythology. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, so Kuiper stuck with the nautical theme when he chose this name. Despite years of astronomical observations, Nereid's exact shape is still a bit of a mystery. Voyager 2 did get some pictures of Nereid, but they were taken from nearly 3 million miles away and were pretty pixelated. However, spectroscopic observations have shown that it has a neutral color and may have water ice on its surface.
This was the second of 14 moons discovered at Neptune. It was also the last one to be discovered with certainty before NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune in 1989. Astronomers suspected they had observed a third moon before, but it wasn't actually seen until the Voyager 2 mission. Kuiper spotted Nereid using an 82-inch reflector telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. He decided to name it after the sea nymphs in Greek Mythology. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, so Kuiper stuck with the nautical theme when he chose this name. Despite years of astronomical observations, Nereid's exact shape is still a bit of a mystery. Voyager 2 did get some pictures of Nereid, but they were taken from nearly 3 million miles away and were pretty pixelated. However, spectroscopic observations have shown that it has a neutral color and may have water ice on its surface.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On May 1st, 1949, Neptune's moon
00:06Nereid was discovered by the Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper.
00:09This was the second of 14 moons discovered at Neptune.
00:12It was also the last one to be discovered
00:15with certainty before NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune
00:18in 1989. Astronomers suspected they had
00:21observed a third moon through a telescope before, but it wasn't
00:24actually seen until the Voyager 2 mission.
00:27Kuiper spotted Nereid using an 82-inch reflector telescope
00:30at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.
00:33He decided to name it after the sea nymphs in Greek mythology.
00:36Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, so Kuiper was
00:39sticking with this nautical theme when he chose this name.
00:42Despite years of astronomical observations,
00:45Nereid's exact shape is still a bit of a mystery.
00:48Voyager 2 did get some pictures of Nereid, but they were taken
00:51from nearly 3 million miles away and were pretty pixelated.
00:54However, spectroscopic observations have shown
00:57that it has a neutral color and may have water ice on its surface.
01:00And that's what happened on this day in space.
01:03NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology