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Larissa

In Greek mythology, Larissa was a daughter of Pelasgus. Two cities (in Thessaly and Peneus) and one fort (near Argos) were named after her.


Larissa is the fifth of Neptune's known moons. 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 x 178)
  • Mass: Unknown
  • Orbital period: 0.554654 days
  • Orbital inclination: 0.20°



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