The Voyager Imaging Team discovers the Neptunian moon, Despina in 1989
Neptune And Its Moons
This time-lapse movie of Neptune was assembled from combining NASA Hubble Space Telescope images taken over a 15-hour period. The movie shows a dynamic atmosphere and captures the fleeting orbits of Neptune's satellites. The natural colour and enhanced colour views of Neptune were assembled from images in 14 different coloured filters.
Despina, also known as Neptune V, is the third closest inner satellite of Neptune. It is named after Despoina, a nymph who was a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Despina was discovered in late July 1989 from the images taken by the Voyager 2 probe. It was given the temporary designation S/1989 N 3. The discovery was announced (IAUC 4824) on August 2, 1989, but the text only talks of "10 frames taken over 5 days", giving a discovery date of sometime before July 28. The name was given on 16 September 1991. Read more