Neptune

Neptune is more than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Neptune would be about as big as a baseball. With an diameter of 30,775 miles (49,528 km). Neptune is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system (the other is Uranus). Most (80% or more) of the planet's mass is made up of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia – above a small, rocky core. Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium with just a little bit of methane. Neptune's neighbor Uranus has a similar makeup; the methane absorbs other colors but reflects blue, giving these ice giants their similar hue. One day on Neptune takes about 16 hours. And Neptune makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Neptunian time) in 60,190 Earth days. Neptune has 16 known moons. Neptune's largest moon Triton was discovered on Oct. 10, 1846, by William Lassell, just 17 days after Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet.Neptune has at least five main rings and four prominent ring arcs that we know of so far. Starting near the planet and moving outward, the main rings are named Galle, Leverrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams. The rings are thought to be relatively young and short-lived. The planet is named after the Roman god of the sea, as suggested by Urbain Le Verrier. Neptune's Greek counterpart is Poseidon.

SOURCE!! The first ever picture of Neptune's ring from 1989 by Voyager 2

Fun Facts!:

From an average distance of 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers), Neptune is 30 astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 4 hours to travel from the Sun to Neptune.
Sometimes Neptune is even farther from the Sun than dwarf planet Pluto. Pluto's highly eccentric, oval-shaped orbit brings it inside Neptune's orbit for a 20-year period every 248 Earth years. This switch, in which Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune, happened most recently from 1979 to 1999. Pluto can never crash into Neptune, though, because for every three laps Neptune takes around the Sun, Pluto makes two. This repeating pattern prevents close approaches of the two bodies.
Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Despite its great distance and low energy input from the Sun, Neptune's winds can be three times stronger than Jupiter's and nine times stronger than Earth's. These winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 1,200 miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per hour). Even Earth's most powerful winds hit only about 250 miles per hour (400 kilometers per hour).

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse