Neptune's 14th moon discovered via Hubble images

Images taken by the Hubble Space telescope show that Neptune has another moon. Senior research scientist Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, the private California-based organization, first discovered the new Neptune moon on July 1.Designated S/2004 N 1, the moon was previously overlooked by astronomers due to its small size and the speed at which the tiny body orbits the planet -- once every 23 hours.

Using a method similar to one often employed by action photographers, Showalter stumbled across the moon in Hubble images of Neptune taken between 2004 and 2009."The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system," he said in a statement released by NASA on Monday.The astronomer further detailed the process he used to spot Neptune's moon in a blog on Cosmic Diary.

Showalter notes in his blog post, the discovery is also significant since astronomers studying Neptune's moons previously thought that the smallest moons orbit closer to the planet. However, S/2004 N 1 is located between Proteus and Larissa, Neptune's second- and third-largest moons.