Image: S-2002 N 5 VLT-FORS1 2002-09-03 annotated

Description: Animation of Neptune's irregular moon S/2002 N 5 (formerly c02N4), imaged as a slow-moving 25th magnitude object by Brett J. Gladman et al. with the ESO's VLT-FORS1 imager on 3 September 2002. Each frame is a median stack of four 420-second exposures taken in the R-band filter; the individual exposures are shifted slightly to follow the moon's movement so that it appears as a point source in the median stack. The dates indicated at the bottom left corner indicate the midpoint time (from 1st exposure start to 4th exposure end time) of each stack. The moving dark spots and curves are image artifacts due to dust on the camera. These images were taken as part of follow-up observations of Neptune's five irregular moons discovered by Gladman et al. in the month before (August 2002), although S/2002 N 5 was lost after these observations and was never seen again until September 2021.
Title: S-2002 N 5 VLT-FORS1 2002-09-03 annotated
Credit: Raw images provided by the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre's Solar System Object Image Search.
Author: Brett J. Gladman et al./European Southern Observatory
Permission: ESO Archive FAQ: "As a rule, science data in ESO Archive are available to users worldwide as soon as data proprietary period has expired (typically: one year)." http://archive.eso.org/cms/faq/are-all-data-from-eso-archive-available-worldwide.html CADC: This image has been publicly provided from the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, which states that "Data held in the CADC archive are open as part of the Government of Canada's Open Science Commitment. Data deposited into the CADC archive are public domain and made available under the Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0." (https://www.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/en/about.html)
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
License: CC BY 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes