PROTEUS

(Neptune’s second largest moon)

Proteus is Neptune’s second largest natural satellite. Proteus orbits Neptune in a nearly
equatorial orbit at the distance of about 4.75 times the radius of Neptune's equator.
Despite being a predominantly icy body more than 400 km (250 mi) in diameter, Proteus's
shape deviates significantly from an ellipsoid. It is shaped more like an irregular polyhedron
with several slightly concave facets and relief as high as 20 km (12 mi). Its surface is dark,
neutral in colour, and heavily cratered. Proteus's largest crater is Pharos, which is more than
230 km (140 mi) in diameter. There are also a number of scarps, grooves, and valleys related
to large craters. Proteus is probably not an original body that formed with Neptune. It could
have accreted later from the debris formed when the largest Neptunian satellite Triton was
captured.
Proteus orbits Neptune at a distance of approximately 117,647 km (73,102 mi) from
Neptune, nearly equal to 4.75 times the equatorial radius of Neptune. The orbit of Proteus
nearly circular, having a small orbital eccentricity, and is inclined by about 0.5 degrees to the
Neptune's equator. Proteus is tidally locked to Neptune, and rotates synchronously with its
orbital motion, which means that one side of Proteus always points to Neptune.
Proteus may have once been in a 1:2 orbital resonance of Larissa, where Proteus makes one
orbit for every two orbits made by Larissa. Due to the outward tidal migration of Proteus in
the past, the orbital resonances of Proteus and Larissa are no longer in effect. Proteus may
have ceased its integral orbital resonance with Larissa several hundred million years into the
past. Proteus, like the other inner moons of Neptune, is unlikely to be an original body that
formed with it, and is more likely to have accreted from the rubble that was produced after
Triton's capture. Triton's orbit upon capture would have been highly eccentric, and would
have caused chaotic perturbations in the orbits of the original inner Neptunian moons,
causing them to collide and reduce to a disc of rubble. Only after Triton's orbit became
circularised did some of the rubble disc re-accrete into the present-day moons of Neptune.
Proteus initially had a smaller orbit around Neptune, and may have formed closer to the
planet. At the time of the formation of Proteus, its orbit was estimated to be 8,000 km
(5,000 mi) less than its current distance from Neptune. Over time, Proteus migrated
outward from Neptune through tidal interactions. During the outward migration of Proteus,
collisions and impact events may have formed large craters and had ejected fragments of
Proteus into orbit around Neptune. A collision of Proteus and another object could possibly
explain the origin of Neptune's smaller moon Hippocamp, which orbits close to Proteus.