More than twenty years after it was last seen, Naiad (named after a water nymph), a tiny Moon of Neptune has been seen again by the Hubble space telescope. After analysing photos taken by the Hubble, astronomers at the SETI Institute in spotted Naiad, the innermost of Neptune's moons. The 100 km moon had remained unseen since the cameras on NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft first discovered it in 1989. It was spotted again using a series of images which were then processed to cancel out the glare from Neptune.
Now that it has been spotted again, there are other mysteries to be solved. It seems Naiad has drifted off course. These new observations show that the Naiad is now ahead of its predicted path in it's orbit, by some 80 degrees in fact.
One explanation is that Naiad may be interacting gravitationally, with the other Moons orbiting Neptune. Further images of this tiny Moon over a few years may help explain this mystery.
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