Discovery and Orbit
Proteus was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 space probe two months before its Neptune flyby in August 1989. It received the temporary designation S/1989 N 1. Stephen P. Synnott and Bradford A. Smith announced its discovery on July 7, 1989, speaking only of “17 frames taken over 21 days”, which gives a discovery date of sometime before June 16.
On 16 September 1991 S/1989 N 1 was named after Proteus, the shape-changing sea god of Greek mythology.
Proteus orbits Neptune at the distance approximately equal to 4.75 equatorial radii of the planet. Its orbit has a small eccentricity and is inclined by about 0.5° to the planet's equator. Proteus is the largest of the regular prograde satellites of Neptune. It rotates synchronously with the orbital motion, which means that one face always points to the planet.
Read more about this topic: Proteus (moon)
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