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Neptune's Dark Spots

Neptune's Moons

Triton, a Moon of Neptune

Ten Facts About Neptune

Below are ten facts about Neptune and its moons and a table of statistics.

FACT ONE
Neptune's moon, Triton, is slowly getting closer to Neptune. Eventually, it will get so close that it may get torn apart by Neptune's gravity and possibly form rings more spectacular than Saturn's.

FACT TWO
The strongest winds in the
Solar System have been recorded on Neptune, at speeds of up to 2,000 kilometres per hour.

FACT THREE
Neptune has
dark spots similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. These are areas of high atmospheric pressure which force clouds of methane gas high up into the atmosphere, appearing like cirrus (thin, whispy) clouds on Earth. However, these spots disappear and reappear on different parts of the planet, unlike Jupiter's spot.

FACT FOUR
Neptune sometimes orbits the
Sun further away than Pluto making it the most distant planet in the Solar System. It returned to its usual position as the second furthest planet away from the Sun in December 1999.

FACT FIVE
Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation. It is the only large moon in the Solar System to do this.

FACT SIX
Neptune has four faint rings. Some parts of these rings are brighter in areas than others and appear like arcs orbiting the planet. Maybe they are still forming.

FACT SEVEN
Since its discovery in 1846, Neptune has completed only one full orbit of the Sun. In fact, it takes 165 years for the planet to go around the
Sun.

FACT EIGHT
Neptune was discovered when scientists noticed something peculiar about Uranus' orbit, believing something to be pulling it in the opposite direction to the
Sun's pull of gravity. They calculated the position of a planet and soon afterwards, discovered Neptune.

FACT NINE
The coldest temperatures measured in the
Solar System (-230°c) have been recorded on Neptune's moon, Triton.

FACT TEN
Pluto, a dwarf planet which has an orbit which sometimes crosses Neptune's, may have been a
moon of Neptune which escaped the planet's pull of gravity, but being prevented from escaping the Solar System by the gravitational pull of the Sun.

VIEW FACTS ABOUT OTHER DESTINATIONS
The Sun - Mercury - Venus - Earth - The Moon - Mars - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune - Pluto and Dwarf Planets

PLANETARY STATISTICS

NAME Neptune
MEANING OF NAME Roman god of the Sea (Greek equivalent is Poseidon)
NAME IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES Neptune (French), Neptuno (Spanish, Portuguese), Neptun (German, Russian), Nettuno (Italian), Neptunus (Latin), Poseidon (Greek) 
AVERAGE DISTANCE FROM THE SUN 4,498,252,900 km / 2,795,084,800 miles / 30.069 A.U.
Comparison with Earth: 149,597,890 km / 92,955,820 miles / 1.000 A.U.
CLOSEST DISTANCE TO THE SUN (PERIHELION) 4,459,630,000 km / 2,771,087,000 miles / 29.811 A.U.
Comparison with Earth: 147,100,000 km / 91,400,000 miles / 0.983 A.U.
FARTHEST DISTANCE FROM THE SUN (APHELION) 4,536,870,000 km / 2,819,080,000 miles / 30.327 A.U.
Comparison with Earth: 152,100,000 km / 94,500,000 miles / 1.017 A.U.
DIAMETER ACROSS EQUATOR

49,528 km / 30,776 miles
Comparison with Earth: 12,756 km / 7,926 miles

DIAGRAM SHOWING PLANET'S SIZE COMPARED TO THE SIZE OF EARTH

Neptune and Earth compared

CIRCUMFERENCE AROUND EQUATOR 155,597 km / 96,683 miles
Comparison with Earth: 40,074 km / 24,901 miles
MASS 102,440,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Comparison with Earth 5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
TIME TO SPIN ON AXIS 16 hours, 6.5 minutes
Comparison with Earth: 23 hours, 56 minutes
TIME TO ORBIT THE SUN (1 YEAR) 164.79 Earth years or 60,190 days
Comparison with Earth: 365 days, 6 hours
DISTANCE PLANET TRAVELS TO COMPLETE ONE ORBIT 28,142,000,000 km / 17,487,000,000 miles
Comparison with Earth: 924,375,700 km / 574,380,400 miles
GRAVITY (EARTH = 1) 1.1
ESCAPE VELOCITY 85,356 km/h / 53,038 mph
Comparison with Earth: 40,248 km/h / 25,009 mph
TEMPERATURE AT CLOUD TOPS -214 °C / -353 °F  / 59 K
Comparison with Earth's average temperature: 15 °c / 59 °F / 288 K
CONTENTS OF ATMOSPHERE Hydrogen, Helium, Methane
KNOWN MOONS Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, Nereid, Halimede, Sao, Laomedeia, Psamathe, Neso
PAST MISSIONS (including nationality and year of launch) Voyager 2 (USA, 1977. Reached Neptune in 1989)
PRESENT MISSIONS Voyager 2
PLANNED MISSIONS None
NOTABLE FEATURES Dark spots representing areas of intense storms appear in Neptune's sky periodically.

 

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Last updated: 17th August 2009