AI overview
Hippocamp is the smallest known moon orbiting Neptune, discovered in 2011. Its discovery helped scientists better understand the Neptune system and the processes by which small moons form and interact in planetary orbit.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Hippocamp, also designated Neptune XIV, is a small inner moon of Neptune discovered on 1 July 2013. It was found by astronomer Mark Showalter by analyzing archived Neptune photographs the Hubble Space Telescope captured between 2004 and 2009. The moon is so dim that it was not observed when the Voyager 2 space probe flew by Neptune and its moons in 1989. It is about 35 km (20 mi) in diameter, and orbits Neptune in about 23 hours, just under one Earth day. Due to its unusually close distance to Neptune's largest inner moon Proteus, it has been hypothesized that Hippocamp may have accreted from material ejected by an impact on Proteus several billion years ago. The moon was previously known by its provisional designation S/2004 N 1 until it was officially named Hippocamp in February 2019, after the mythological sea-horse symbolizing Poseidon in Greek mythology.
History