NEPTUNE
NEPTUNE
In Roman and Greek (Poseidon) mythologies, Neptune is the god of the sea and of the underworld.
He is a son of Saturn and so a brother of Jupiter. Neptune wields a trident as a weapon against his enemies. As creator of the horse, he is the patron god of horse racing.
NEPTUNE
Neptune is an average of 4.5x109 km from the Sun and has an orbital period of 165 years. It rotates once every 16 hours.
NEPTUNE
Along with Uranus, Neptune one of two “ice” giant planets in our solar system.
They are theorized to have a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of “ices”. Above the mantle some sources suggest a liquid hydrogen /helium layer, others report it as a gas.
NEPTUNE
17x Earth’s mass, but a little smaller than Uranus. Compare this to Uranus’ 14.5 Earth masses. A greater mass in a smaller volume means that Neptune is more dense that Uranus.
NEPTUNE
Deep blue color. The blue is caused by methane in the upper atmosphere which reflects blue light. This also gives Uranus its blue color but the difference between the two is unknown.
NEPTUNE
Neptune has sustained winds of over 2000km/hr. Prevailing theory is that cold temperatures make for less friction which allows the wind speeds to build.
NEPTUNE
With less energy in the outer solar system, Uranus has fewer and smaller storms. However, Neptune’s strong winds counter this tendency and so has relatively strong storms as seen here.
NEPTUNE
Neptune has a magnetic field which is off center (like Uranus’). Speculation is that the icy mantle is causing this in both ice giants. There’s no strong correlation, but these are the only two planets that have icy mantles and exhibit off center magnetic fields.
NEPTUNE
It has 3 main rings; 2 narrow and one broader. The rings seem to be clumpy, with dark and light sections in each.
NEPTUNE
NEPTUNE
Neptune has 12 14 known moons.
NEPTUNE’S MOON TRITON
Its largest moon is Triton with a diameter of 2700km.
Its retrograde orbit suggests that it is a captured Kuiper Belt object.
What does retrograde mean?
NEPTUNE’S MOON TRITON
Note the similar appearance of Triton and Pluto. Pluto is a Kuiper Belt object.
NEPTUNE’S MOON TRITON
Triton’s surface has water ice, methane ice, and nitrogen ice. Its surface is very flat with few craters. Which means……
…which means that it has been renewed; likely by cryovolcanoes. Active nitrogen geysers have been seen erupting on its surface.
NEPTUNE
Neptune was discovered in 1846 on purpose. The orbit of Uranus was always observed to be off a bit from where it should have been according to calculations.
NEPTUNE
Mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted that this was due to a new, undiscovered planet. He used math to predict where it could be found.
NEPTUNE
Neptune was found within 1° of his prediction on the very next night after his prediction.�
Neptune is the only planet to have been found with math….so far.