Galatea, a moon of Neptune

Galatea is a small moon of Neptune. It is one of Neptune's inner moons and is the third closest moon to orbit the planet. Galatea has a diameter of approximately 175 kilometres (109 miles). It orbits Neptune at a distance of just over 61,500 kilometres (38,300 miles). A length of an orbit takes only 10 hours which means that it orbits Neptune faster than the planet spins.

Galatea orbits about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from one of Neptune's rings, its Adams ring. It is considered to be a shepherd moon, a moon which holds the materials in the Adams ring in place.

Galatea is believed to be the fragments of an earlier moon that was destroyed when Neptune captured its largest moon Triton. Parts of that destroyed moon joined back together to form Galatea and some of Neptune's other inner moons.

Galatea is classed as a regular prograde moon. Regular moons are moons that formed out of materials spinning around a planet. Irregular moons are ones that were captured by a planet. A prograde moon is one which orbits in the same direction of the rotation of its host planet.