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Learn about Neptune, the eighth and most distant planet from the Sun, with facts, images, and stories. Find out how Neptune was discovered, what it's made of, how many moons it has, and more.
- History
- Structure
- Neptune's Rings
- Neptune's Moons
- Observation
- Exploration
- References
- Other Websites
Discovery
Galileo Galilei was the first person to see Neptune. He saw it on 28 December 1612 and 27 January 1613. His drawings showed the points where Neptune is placed, it is near Jupiter. But Galileo was not credited for the discovery. He thought Neptune was a "fixed star" instead of a planet. Galileo's small telescope was not strong enough to see that Neptune was a planet. In 1821, Alexis Bouvard published the astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus. Later observations showed that Uranus was orbi...
Crediting and naming
When Neptune was discovered, the French and the British could not agree on who would get credit for the discovery. Later, an international agreement decided that both Le Verrier and Adams deserved credit. However, historians reviewed the topic after the rediscovery in 1998 of the "Neptune papers" (historical documents from the Royal Greenwich Observatory). It had seemingly been stolen by astronomer Olin Eggen for almost 30 years. It was only found again (in his ownership) shortly after his de...
Mass and composition
Neptune's mass is between that of the Earth and the largest gas giants. Neptune is the fourth largest planet in the Solar System and the third most massive. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth, but just 1⁄18 the mass of Jupiter. Neptune is a little bit more massive than Uranus, though Neptune is denser and smaller in size than Uranus. Neptune and Uranus are often considered a part of "ice giants" (a sub-class of gas giants). They are smaller in size than Jupiter and Saturn, and have differ...
Weather and magnetic field
One difference between Neptune and Uranus is the level of its meteorological activity. When the Voyager spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, the winds on that planet were observed not so strong as on Neptune. When Voyager flew by Neptune in 1989, powerful weather events were observed. The weather of Neptune has very active storms. Its atmosphere has the highest wind speeds in the Solar System. It may be powered by internal heat flow. Regular winds in the equatorial region have speeds of around...
There are five rings around the planet. They are not as well known as the rings of Saturn. The rings were discovered by a team led by an American scientist Edward Guinan in 1968. Then, in the mid-1980s astronomers thought that the rings might not be complete. Stellar occultations were found that rarely showed an extra "blink" just before or after t...
Neptune has 16 known moons.As Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, the planet's moons were named after lesser sea gods or goddesses. The largest moon of Neptune is Triton. Triton was discovered on 10 October 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell. Unlike all other large planetary moons, Triton orbits in the other direction to the other moons. ...
Neptune cannot be seen by just looking at the sky with the naked eye. To see it, a telescope or binoculars is needed. This is because Neptune has a normal brightness between magnitudes +7.7 and +8.0. It can be outshined by Jupiter's Galilean moons, the dwarf planet Ceres, and the asteroids 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas, 7 Iris, 3 Juno and 6 Hebe. A telescope o...
Currently, only one spacecraft has visited Neptune. NASA's Voyager 2probe made a quick fly-by of the planet with its closest encounter on 25 August 1989. One of Voyager 2's important discoveries was its very close fly-by of Triton, where it took pictures of several parts of the moon. The pictures were sent back to Earth from Voyager 2 in 1989. The ...
Based on Irwin, Patrick G J; Dobinson, Jack; James, Arjuna; Teanby, Nicholas A; Simon, Amy A; Fletcher, Leigh N; Roman, Michael T; Orton, Glenn S; Wong, Michael H; Toledo, Daniel; Pérez-Hoyos, Sa...Orbital elements refer to the Neptune barycentre and Solar System barycentre. These are the instantaneous osculating values at the precise J2000epoch. Barycentre quantities are given because, in...Refers to the level of 1 bar (100 kPa) atmospheric pressureNeptune Profile Archived 2006-12-13 at the Wayback Machine by NASA's Solar System Exploration- 23 September 1846
- Neptunian (/nɛpˈtjuːniən/), Poseidean
- Latin Neptunus, via French Neptune
- 30.33AU (4.54 billion km)
May 3, 2024 · Recent News. Apr. 30, 2024, 6:05 AM ET (Space.com) Evidence for Planet 9 found in icy bodies sneaking past Neptune. Apr. 21, 2024, 11:11 PM ET (NASA Science (.gov)) Discovery alert! An Earth that looks like Neptune. Apr. 20, 2024, 6:13 AM ET (TechSpot) Astronomers gather additional evidence suggesting Planet Nine is real.
Learn about Neptune, the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. Find out about its size, orbit, moons, rings, atmosphere, and more.
Mar 28, 2019 · Learn about the blue planet's orbit, weather, moons, rings, and history in this article. Find out how Neptune was discovered, what makes it so windy and cold, and why it's the only planet that can't be seen without a telescope.
Learn about Neptune, the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. Find out about its size, orbit, moons, rings, atmosphere, and more.
5 days ago · Learn about Neptune, the last and darkest planet in our solar system. Find out how it's similar to Uranus, how long it takes to orbit the sun, and what its rings and moons look like.
