10 characteristics of NEPTUNE

Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun. It was the first planet to predict its existence by mathematical calculations before actually being seen through a telescope on September 23, 1846. Irregularities in Uranus's orbit led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest that the gravitational pull of another celestial body I could be responsible. German astronomer Johann Galle then relied on later calculations to help detect Neptune through the telescope. Previously, the astronomer Galileo Galilei drew the planet, but mistook it for a star due to its slow motion. In agreement with all the other planets seen in the sky, this new world received a name from Greek and Roman mythology: Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.

Notable NEPTUNE features

1. Only one mission has flown with Neptune - Voyager 2 in 1989 - which means that astronomers have done most of the studies using ground-based telescopes. Today, there are still many mysteries about the cold, blue planet, such as why its winds are so fast and why its magnetic field is balanced. While Neptune is of interest because it is in our own solar system, astronomers are also interested in learning more about the planet to help with exoplanet studies. Specifically, some astronomers are interested in learning about the habitability of worlds that are somewhat larger than Earth.
2. The Neptune's cloud cover has an especially vivid blue tint that is due in part to an as-yet-unidentified compound and the result of the absorption of red light by methane on planets, mainly in the atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Photos of Neptune reveal a blue planet, often referred to as an ice giant, as it has a thick, fluid mixture of water, ammonia and methane icies beneath its atmosphere and is about 17 times the mass of Earth and nearly 58 times its volume. according to a NASA fact sheet. Neptune's rocky core alone is thought to be about equal to the mass of Earth, NASA says
3. The Neptune's oval-shaped, elliptical orbit keeps the planet at an average distance from the sun of nearly 4.5 billion kilometers, or about 30 times that of Earth, making it invisible to the naked eye. Neptune goes around the sun about once every 165 Earth years, and it completed its first orbit since its discovery in 2011.
4. The general composition of neptune it is, by mass, about 25 percent rock, 60 to 70 percent ice, and 5 to 15 percent hydrogen and helium, according to Tristan Guillot, author of "Interiors of Giant Planets Inside and Outside the Solar System." in Science magazine.
   Like Earth, Neptune has a rocky core, but it has a much thicker atmosphere that prohibits the existence of life as we know it. Astronomers are still trying to figure out at what point a planet is so large that it can collect a large amount of gas in the area, making it difficult or impossible for life to exist.
5. average distance from the sun: 2,795,084,800 miles (4,498,252,900 km). For comparison: 30,069 times further than Earth



6. Neptune has 14 known moons, named after sea gods and lesser nymphs from Greek mythology. The biggest by far is Triton, whose discovery on October 10, 1846, was in a sense enabled by beer: amateur astronomer William Lassell used the fortune he made as a brewer to finance his telescopes.
7. The Neptune's unusual rings are not uniform, but they do have thick, glowing clumps of dust called arcs. The rings are believed to be relatively young and short-lived. Earth-based observations announced in 2005 found that Neptune's rings are apparently much more unstable than previously thought, with some shrinking rapidly, according to an article in the newspaper Icarus.
8. Due to its great distance from the sun, it receives little sunlight to help heat and propel its atmosphere, Neptune's winds can reach up to 2,400 km/h, the fastest yet detected in the solar system. These winds were related to a large dark storm that Voyager 2 tracked in Neptune's southern hemisphere in 1989. This oval-shaped, counterclockwise "Great Dark Spot" was large enough to contain the entire Earth and was moving heading west at almost 1,200 km/h. This storm seemed to have blown away when the Hubble Space Telescope later searched for it. Hubble has also revealed the appearance and disappearance of other Great Dark Places in the last decade. A new one was observed in 2016.
9. Neptune's magnetic poles are tilted approximately 47 degrees compared to the poles along which it rotates. As such, the planet's magnetic field, which is about 27 times more powerful than Earth'sa, undergoes wild oscillations during each rotation.
10. It is generally believed that Neptune formed with the initial accumulation of a solid core, followed by the capture of surrounding hydrogen and helium gas in the nebula surrounding the sun. In this model, proto-Neptune formed over the course of 1 to 10 million years.

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