Neptune Statistics:
- Distance from Sun: 2.793 billion mi
- Rings: 5
- Radius: 15,299 mi
- Polar Diameter: 48,682 km
- Orbital period: 165 years
- Mass: 1.024 × 10^26 kg (17.15 M⊕)
- Moons: (14, including Triton)
- Date of Discovery: September 23, 1846 by Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Galle
What are facts about Neptune?
What are 10 interesting facts about Neptune?
- Neptune is the Most Distant Planet:
- Neptune is the Smallest of the Gas Giants:
- Neptune’s Surface Gravity is Almost Earth-like:
- The Discovery of Neptune is Still a Controversy:
- Neptune has the Strongest Winds in the Solar System:
- Neptune is the Coldest Planet in the Solar System:
How far is Neptune from the Sun in kilometers?
The closest Neptune gets to the Sun is 2,771,087,000 miles or 4,459,630,000 kilometers. The farthest it gets from the Sun is 2,819,080,000 miles or 4,536,870,000 kilometers.
How long does it take Neptune to orbit the Sun?
How long does it take Neptune to revolve around the Sun? The answer is that the amount of time it takes for Neptune to revolve around the Sun in one full orbit is equivalent to 165 years on Earth. That means that for every week on Neptune, more than three years pass on the planet Earth.
How long is a day on Neptune?
The gas giant planet Neptune has a day length of approximately 15 hours. It took scientists a number of years to calculate the rotation rate of this gas giant. They accomplished the task by studying images of the planet as features rotated around in its atmosphere.
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What is Neptune's known for?
More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye and the first predicted by mathematics before its discovery. In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846.
What is Neptune's composition?
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. Of the giant planets, Neptune is the densest.
What is significant about Neptune's discovery?
The discovery of these records of Neptune's position in 1795 led to a better calculation of the planet's orbit. John Herschel almost discovered Neptune the same way his father, William Herschel, had discovered Uranus in 1781: by chance observation.
What is Neptune's volume?
Bulk parametersNeptuneRatio (Neptune/Earth)Volume (1010 km3)6,25457.74Equatorial radius (1 bar level) (km)24,7643.883Polar radius (1 bar level) (km)24,3413.829Volumetric mean radius (km)24,6223.86515 more rows•Dec 23, 2021
What is Neptune made of percentages?
Molecular hydrogen: 80 percent. Helium: 19 percent. Methane 1.5 percent. Hydrogen Deuteride: 192 parts per million.
What are 5 facts about Neptune?
10 Interesting Facts About NeptuneNeptune is the Most Distant Planet: ... Neptune is the Smallest of the Gas Giants: ... Neptune's Surface Gravity is Almost Earth-like: ... The Discovery of Neptune is Still a Controversy: ... Neptune has the Strongest Winds in the Solar System: ... Neptune is the Coldest Planet in the Solar System:More items...•
How was Neptune found using math?
The discovery was made based on mathematical calculations of its predicted position due to observed perturbations in the orbit of the planet Uranus. The discovery was made using a telescope since Neptune is too faint to be visible to the naked eye, owing to its great distance from the Sun.
Who discovered Neptune for math?
The planet Neptune – now considered by most astronomers to be the outermost major planet in our solar system – was discovered on this date, using mathematics. Johann Gottfried Galle, Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, and John Couch Adams all worked independently to help discover this world in 1846.
Why do we say that Neptune was the first planet to be discovered through the use of mathematics quizlet?
Terms in this set (3) Neptune was first discovered on September 23, 1843, by Johann Gottfried Galle. It was the first planet discovered by mathematical prediction. The planet was named after Neptune, the Roman God of Sea.
Is Neptune the largest planet?
Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our Solar System and it is the smallest of the giant gas planets. Neptune has a diameter of 34,503 miles (55,528) kilometers. Its volume is 57.7 times the volume of Earth which means that 57 Earths could fit inside of Neptune with a little room left over.
Is Neptune the slowest planet?
Venus takes 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis, making it the slowest of all planets. Our Earth is extremely tiny in comparison with our Sun. Venus is the second planet from the Sun, circling it each 224.7 Earth days.
What percentage of Earth's density does Neptune have?
Although Neptune has a mean density slightly less than 30 percent of Earth's, it is the densest of the giant planets. This implies that a larger percentage of Neptune's interior is composed of melted ices and molten rocky materials than is the case for the other giant planets.
What are some interesting facts about Neptune?
Facts about Neptune. Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun. Neptune is the smallest gas giant. A year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea. Neptune has 6 faint rings. Neptune was not known to the ancients. It is not visible to the naked eye and was first observed in 1846.
How many spacecraft have flown by Neptune?
Only one spacecraft has flown by Neptune. In 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft swept past the planet. It returned the first close-up images of the Neptune system. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has also studied this planet, as have a number of ground-based telescopes.
What is the atmosphere of Neptune?
Neptune’s Atmosphere. Neptune has an incredibly thick atmosphere comprised of 74% hydrogen, 25% helium and approximately 1% methane. Its atmosphere also contains icy clouds and the fastest winds recorded in the solar system.
Why is Neptune called Neptune?
It was named after the Roman god of the sea. Neptune spins on its axis very rapidly. Its equatorial clouds take 16 hours to make one rotation. This is because Neptune is not solid body. Neptune is the smallest of the ice giants. Despite being smaller than Uranus, Neptune has a greater mass.
Which planet has the largest mass?
Despite being smaller than Uranus, Neptune has a greater mass. Below its heavy atmosphere, Uranus is made of layers of hydrogen, helium, and methane gases. They enclose a layer of water, ammonia and methane ice. The inner core of the planet is made of rock.
How long has Neptune been in orbit?
In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846. NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune up close. It flew past in 1989 on its way out of the solar system. Go farther. Explore Neptune In Depth ›.
What is Neptune made of?
It's made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus. Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see. Visit NASA Space Place for more kid-friendly facts.
What is the windiest planet in the solar system?
Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 2,000 km/h (1,200 mph)—close to the top speed of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. Earth's most powerful winds hit only about 400 km/h (250 mph).
What is the only planet in our solar system that is not visible to the naked eye?
Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye and the first predicted by mathematics before its discovery. In 2011 Neptune completed its first ...
How far is Neptune from the Sun?
Eighth Wanderer. Neptune orbits our Sun, a star, and is the eighth planet from the Sun at a distance of about 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers). 3.
Which planet is the farthest from the Sun?
Even though Neptune is the farthest planet from our Sun, it's a frequent stop in pop culture and fiction. The planet served as the backdrop for the 1997 science fiction horror film Event Horizon, while in the cartoon series Futurama, the character Robot Santa Claus has his home base on Neptune' s north pole. Dr.
Is Neptune a kid friendly planet?
Kid-Friendly Neptune. Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth is. Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center.
What is a Neptune?
NEPTUNE is the world's first regional-scale underwater ocean observatory that plugs directly into the Internet. NEPTUNE is the largest installation on the Ocean Networks Canada network of ocean observatories. Since December 2009, it has allowed people to "surf" the seafloor while ocean scientists run deep-water experiments from labs ...
What is the atmosphere of Neptune?
At high altitudes, Neptune's atmosphere is 80% hydrogen and 19% helium. A trace amount of methane is also present. Prominent absorption bands of methane exist at wavelengths above 600 nm, in the red and infrared portion of the spectrum. As with Uranus, this absorption of red light by the atmospheric methane is part of what gives Neptune its blue hue, although Neptune's vivid azure differs from Uranus's milder cyan. Because Neptune's atmospheric methane content is similar to that of Uranus, some unknown atmospheric constituent is thought to contribute to Neptune's colour.
How does Neptune compare to Uranus?
Neptune's more varied weather when compared to Uranus is due in part to its higher internal heating. The upper regions of Neptune's troposphere reach a low temperature of 51.8 K (−221.3 °C). At a depth where the atmospheric pressure equals 1 bar (100 kPa ), the temperature is 72.00 K (−201.15 °C). Deeper inside the layers of gas, the temperature rises steadily. As with Uranus, the source of this heating is unknown, but the discrepancy is larger: Uranus only radiates 1.1 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun; whereas Neptune radiates about 2.61 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun. Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun, and lies over 50% farther from the Sun than Uranus, and receives only 40% its amount of sunlight, yet its internal energy is sufficient to drive the fastest planetary winds seen in the Solar System. Depending on the thermal properties of its interior, the heat left over from Neptune's formation may be sufficient to explain its current heat flow, though it is more difficult to simultaneously explain Uranus 's lack of internal heat while preserving the apparent similarity between the two planets.
What is the farthest planet in the solar system?
From its discovery in 1846 until the discovery of Pluto in 1930, Neptune was the farthest-known planet. When Pluto was discovered, it was considered a planet, and Neptune thus became the second-farthest-known planet, except for a 20-year period between 1979 and 1999 when Pluto's elliptical orbit brought it closer than Neptune to the Sun. The discovery of the Kuiper belt in 1992 led many astronomers to debate whether Pluto should be considered a planet or as part of the Kuiper belt. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union defined the word "planet" for the first time, reclassifying Pluto as a " dwarf planet " and making Neptune once again the outermost-known planet in the Solar System.
How does Neptune's magnetic field compare to Uranus'?
Neptune resembles Uranus in its magnetosphere, with a magnetic field strongly tilted relative to its rotational axis at 47° and offset at least 0.55 radii, or about 13,500 km from the planet's physical centre. Before Voyager 2 's arrival at Neptune, it was hypothesised that Uranus's tilted magnetosphere was the result of its sideways rotation. In comparing the magnetic fields of the two planets, scientists now think the extreme orientation may be characteristic of flows in the planets' interiors. This field may be generated by convective fluid motions in a thin spherical shell of electrically conducting liquids (probably a combination of ammonia, methane and water) resulting in a dynamo action.
What are the rings on Neptune?
The three main rings are the narrow Adams Ring, 63,000 km from the centre of Neptune, the Le Verrier Ring, at 53,000 km, and the broader, fainter Galle Ring, at 42,000 km. A faint outward extension to the Le Verrier Ring has been named Lassell; it is bounded at its outer edge by the Arago Ring at 57,000 km.
What are the major resonances in the Kuiper belt?
A diagram showing the major orbital resonances in the Kuiper belt caused by Neptune: the highlighted regions are the 2:3 resonance (plutinos), the nonresonant "classical belt" (cubewanos), and the 1:2 resonance ( twotinos ).
How many moons does Neptune have?
Neptune has 14 known moons as of 2019. Its largest celestial tagalong, Triton, is the solar system's only large moon that has a retrograde orbit, which means it zips around Neptune in the opposite direction than its host planet's rotation. This curious orbital direction may be evidence that it wasn't always a moon.
What is the atmosphere of Neptune?
Neptune is just one of two ice giants in our cosmic family, along with Uranus. It's blanketed in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, with traces of methane, water, and ammonia. Underneath an initial chilly layer, temperatures and pressures rapidly increase.
What is the windiest planet in the solar system?
Share. Tweet. Email. Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child. Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour.
How long does it take for Neptune to orbit the Sun?
Neptune rotates quickly compared to Earth, with one day taking 16 Earth hours. But its great distance from the sun means the years are long, requiring 165 Earth years to make one trip around our glowing star.
Why is Neptune darker than its neighbor?
But Neptune is likely similarly pale as its neighbor and just appears darker in images because of its greater distance from the sun. Still, according to NASA, there may be some other, unknown component of Neptune's atmosphere that colors the world a slightly different hue. 3:55.
Which planet is the most distant in the solar system?
Neptune is the most distant of the solar system's eight planets. Find out about the blue world's orbit, which of Neptune' s moons is the largest, and how the planet is home to the most severe weather in the solar system.
When was Neptune discovered?
That means that Neptune wasn't an easy planet to discover. Some suggest that Galileo Galilei first spotted Neptune as early as 1613. Many believe that he mistook it for a star at the time, yet some scientists think that may not be the case. Most attribute Neptune's discovery to mathematical mastery in the 1800s.
What are some interesting facts about Neptune?
More Facts about the planet Neptune 1 Neptune’s core is made up of a mixture of rock and ices, surrounded by a mantle of water, methane and ammonia. 2 The atmosphere on Neptune is primarily made from hydrogen and helium, with a lesser amount of methane. 3 The temperature of Neptune is an average of -200°c. This is warmer than Uranus, even though it’s further away from the Sun. 4 Neptune has 14 moons that we know of, the largest of these moons being Triton. 5 Triton is known for orbiting the planet in the opposite the planet rotates, and is the only large moon to do this. 6 Neptune has five main rings, which makes up a fairly simple ring system. Simpler than both Uranus and Saturn, which has the most extensive ring system. 7 There has only been one spacecraft that has been to Neptune – the Voyager 2, back in 1989. 8 Neptune has the worst storms of any planet, reaching speeds in excess of 1,300mph (2,200kmph). 9 The most famous storm on Neptune is known as the Great Dark Spot, which was about the same size as the Earth. 10 Neptune is the only planet that isn’t visible without using a telescope, as it’s so far away.
How hot is Neptune?
The temperature of Neptune is an average of -200°c. This is warmer than Uranus, even though it’s further away from the Sun. Neptune has 14 moons that we know of, the largest of these moons being Triton. Triton is known for orbiting the planet in the opposite the planet rotates, and is the only large moon to do this.
Which planet has the most rings?
Triton is known for orbiting the planet in the opposite the planet rotates, and is the only large moon to do this. Neptune has five main rings, which makes up a fairly simple ring system. Simpler than both Uranus and Saturn, which has the most extensive ring system.
What is the Greek equivalent of Neptune?
The Greek equivalent of Neptune is known as Poseidon. Neptune was discovered in 1846, and was the last of the planets to be discovered. However, Galileo did have Neptune marked down, but he didn’t declare it to be a planet. Neptune is approximately 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers) away from the Sun – this is around 30x ...
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
There’s around 29 astronomical units (AU) between Neptune and the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. Neptune has a radius of 15,299.4 miles (24,622 kilometers). This makes it the 4th largest planet, after Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Although the radius of Uranus is bigger than the radius of Neptune, Neptune still has a larger mass than Uranus.
Why is Neptune blue?
We aren’t exactly sure why Neptune is more Blue than Uranus, but it may be due to less methane, or another separate factor we aren’t aware of.
Which planets are gas giants?
Back in the 1990s, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all referred to as the gas giants. And this is right, as they are all made up of gas, as opposed to the terrestrial planets. However, astronomers thought there was the need to differentiate Uranus and Neptune from Jupiter and Saturn, as they have much more ice.
Overview
- NEPTUNE is an acronym for North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments. The North-East Pacific is home to the Juan de Fuca plate—smallest of Earth's 12 tectonic plates. Its small size and close proximity to the coast gives NEPTUNE Canada a unique opportunity to observe tectonic processes. NEPTUNE Canada is built to provide continuo...
Status
- In 2007, NEPTUNE Canada laid approximately 800 km of power transmission and fibre optic communication cables over the northern part of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the west coast of Vancouve...
- The NEPTUNE project was selected as one of the five most significant science projects of the year in 2008 from The Economist.
- In 2007, NEPTUNE Canada laid approximately 800 km of power transmission and fibre optic communication cables over the northern part of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the west coast of Vancouve...
- The NEPTUNE project was selected as one of the five most significant science projects of the year in 2008 from The Economist.
- In June 2008, the NEPTUNE project received and successfully tested the world's first "Internet-operated deep sea crawler", created by a team of ocean scientists at Bremen's Jacobs University, will...
- Late September 2008 NEPTUNE Canada's first fully instrumented instrument platform was deployed by ROPOS from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P Tully in Saanich Inlet and co…
Data Channels and Connections
- In NEPTUNE Canada network traffic, there are 4 different type of network channels that are defined in the network description file based on the data provided. The first channel provides 10 Gbit/s data rate between UVIC (University of Victoria) DMAS (Data Management and Archive Station) and shore station in Port Alberni. This channel has the largest volume in the system, an…
External Links
References
- Barnes, Chris; M. Best; F. Johnson; P. Phibbs; B. Pirenne (October 2008). "Transforming the ocean sciences through cabled observatories" (PDF). Marine Technology: 30–36. Archived from the original...
- Barnes, Chris; M. Best; A. Zielinski (July 2008). "The NEPTUNE Canada Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory". Sea Technology.
- Barnes, Chris; M. Best; F. Johnson; P. Phibbs; B. Pirenne (October 2008). "Transforming the ocean sciences through cabled observatories" (PDF). Marine Technology: 30–36. Archived from the original...
- Barnes, Chris; M. Best; A. Zielinski (July 2008). "The NEPTUNE Canada Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory". Sea Technology.
- Carr, Geoffrey (15 November 2007). "Visiting Neptune's kingdom". The Economist.
- Calamai, Peter (Winter 2009). "Transforming the ocean sciences through cabled observatories". Canadian Technology & Business.