The planet is basically a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Like other gas giants, Neptune has a ring system, six of them to be exact, but they are faint. Neptune also has 14 confirmed moons. The weather on Neptune is very active. Sometimes dark spots form in the atmosphere, which are basically storms the size of Earth.
It has the wildest and strangest weather out of all the planets in the Solar System. The winds speeds on Neptune are the most outstanding. They are nearly a supersonic flow.
These winds break the sound barrier being 5 times stronger than the strongest winds on Earth. A day on Neptune is less than a day on Earth. It lasts for only 16 hours. Since Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun, it has a very long journey to complete around it. One year on Neptune is equal to Earth years. Neptune has a radius of In comparison to gas giants, things get serious. Saturn has 2. When it comes to the terrestrial planets, Neptune is four times larger than Earth and Venus.
It has 7. The name Neptune was first given to the seventh discovered planet of the Solar System. However, the name was discarded but Uranus ultimately led to the discovery of the eighth planet, which would bear the name Neptune. In Neptune completed its first year orbit since its discovery in It flew past in on its way out of the solar system. Neptune is about four times wider than Earth. If Earth were a large apple, Neptune would be the size of a basketball.
Neptune orbits our Sun, a star, and is the eighth planet from the Sun at a distance of about 2. Neptune takes about 16 hours to rotate once a Neptunian day , and about Earth years to orbit the sun a Neptunian year. Neptune is an ice giant.
Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials — water, methane and ammonia — above a small rocky core. Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of molecular hydrogen, atomic helium and methane. Neptune has 14 known moons which are named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology. Neptune has at least five main rings and four more ring arcs, which are clumps of dust and debris likely formed by the gravity of a nearby moon.
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune. No spacecraft has orbited this distant planet to study it at length and up close. But the blue planet's six rings are not as solid as its neighbors. Instead, the clumpy rings contain prominent arcs, likely due to the influence of one of Neptune's moons.
Made up of ice particles and silicates, the rings are reddish. Neptune's rings were first discovered when it passed between a star while astronomers were attempting to study the planet. The star faded out, then returned to view. Unlike other rings, the arc-like nature meant that the fading did not repeat on the other side of the planet, which puzzled scientist. It wasn't until Voyager imaged the planet in that the mystery of the rings was solved.
Neptune experiences four seasons just like Earth. Due to this axial tilt, one hemisphere of the planet receives more sunlight than the other, depending on where it is in its orbit. This gives rise to seasons. Although methane is only 1. This gives Neptune its blue color. It is home to the strongest winds in the solar system, blowing at supersonic speeds reaching 1, miles per hour. Neptune would be an odd yet fascinating place to live if we could wrap our heads around the fact that its seasons last for 40 Earth years.
What is Neptune made of, and what is it about its composition that drives this behavior? Quick Navigation.
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