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Neptune Facts

Neptune Facts
Neptune was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier and Johann Galle in 1846. It is the farthest planet from the sun in our solar system. Neptune is the densest of the gaseous planets in our solar system. It is named after Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, while its astronomical sign is representative of Neptune's trident. This planet was the first to be discovered by mathematical prediction, instead of by observation. When the space probe Voyager 2 left on a mission to reach Neptune, it took 12 years to reach it. Voyager 2 did a flyby in 1989, and is the only mission to Neptune to date.
Interesting Neptune Facts:
Neptune's mass is 102,410,000,000,000,000 billion kg, which is equal to 17.15 x the mass of Earth.
Neptune's equatorial circumference is 155,600km.
Neptune has 14 known moons, the most notable one being Tritan.
Neptune's moon Tritan was discovered by William Lassel only 17 days following Neptune's discovery.
Tritan, Neptune's largest moon by far, is expected to be torn apart in approximately 3.6 billion years because of its tidal acceleration.
The wind on Neptune can reach speeds of 1,240 miles per hour. This is equal to three times the speed of Earth's worst hurricanes.
The stormiest planet in our solar system is Neptune.
The atmosphere on Neptune is made up of helium, methane and hydrogen.
Neptune has its own heat source, which is a good thing because it only receives 1/900 of the sun's energy that the Earth receives.
Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun, and it takes more than 164 Earth years to orbit the sun.
Because of the methane gas in Neptune's atmosphere, the planet appears to be blue. This actually occurs partly because of the ability of atmospheric methane gas to absorb red light.
Although Neptune has rings, they are incomplete and as such are considered to be arcs.
The surface temperature on Neptune is -201 degrees Celsius.
Even though Neptune has a greater mass than Uranus, it has a smaller diameter.
Neptune has a mass 17 times greater than that of Earth's, but its mass is only 1/19th of Jupiter's.
Although Galileo drew images of Neptune in 1612, his drawings were actually of a fixed star and not the planet. This mistake is the reason he is not credited with Neptune's discovery.
Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun (even though it is not technically considered a planet anymore), but for 20 years, beginning in 1979, it actually moved closer to the sun than Neptune because of its orbit.
Some of the clouds on Neptune have such a high altitude that they cast shadows on the lower altitude clouds.
Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered the Great Dark Spot on Neptune in 1989. This spot was actually a storm system. In 1994 a new storm system was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
It is not possible to see Neptune with the naked eye. If you try to find it with very strong binoculars or a telescope, you will see a small blue disk that looks very similar to Uranus.


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