Word: nereid
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Neptune's Tides. McCord's calculations seem to support what other scientists have suspected. Long ago, as it sank from a higher orbit, Triton passed close to Nereid. The smaller moon, buffeted by Triton's more powerful gravity, may have been hurled into the elliptical orbit it now follows...
Like many scientists before him, Caltech Graduate Student Thomas McCord was searching for other answers when he made his unexpected discovery. Curious about the odd behavior of the planet Neptune's two moons, Triton and Nereid, he set out to make a mathematical analysis of their unusual orbits. Last week in the Astronomical Journal, he reported that his two-year, computer-aided investigation had not only accounted for the current state of the Neptunian satellites but had also given him a startling glimpse into the future: Triton, largest of the two moons, is doomed to smash into Neptune...
...distance of 220,000 miles, about the same distance as the moon is from the earth. But unlike the earth's moon and most other solarsystem satellites, Triton moves in a retrograde direction: it circles the "wrong" way-clockwise-around Neptune which spins counterclockwise on its axis. Nereid, only about 200 miles in diameter, revolves in the direction of Neptune's spin, but its orbital path is highly irregular, swinging as far as 6,000,000 miles into space and as close as 900,000 miles from Neptune's surface...
...lasting tribute to feminine grace. Of all the collections in the Taranto region, the richest was found in the tomb of a girl who died in Canosa. Among the objects was a jewel case on the cover of which was a silver disk showing a soft-fleshed Nereid...