AbstractsAstronomy & Space Science

Nereid is a satellite of Neptune that has shown interesting photometric variations. The cause of these photometric variations are unknown as knowledge of its orientation, shape, and surface features is limited. Recently, the spin period on Nereid has been observed to be 11.5 hours. We calculated the change in brightness of Nereid as seen from Earth using an N-body simulation of the solar system. We started with our best candidate from our previous work for Nereid using the new spin period. By comparing the simulation to the observations we show that this can not be an approximate case of Nereid. We then simulate Nereid with one hemisphere being more reflective then the other. We determined a few best cases for Nereid based on the observations of Schaefer et al. (2008). These cases were not able to match the large amplitude variation in magnitude seen in the active periods of Nereid. Advisors/Committee Members: Alexander, Stephen (Advisor).