20 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Neptune | Amazing Facts 4U
- Neptune gets its name from Roman and Greek mythology. Neptune is actually the name of the Roman god of the sea.
- Neptune is the first planet in our entire solar system whose existence was predicted by mathematical calculations before we actually spotted it using a telescope.
- It was Alex Bouvard, a French astronomer who predicted that the gravitation pull of some other celestial body was responsible for giving Uranus its orbital irregularities. His suggestion was used as a basis of mathematical calculations by Johann Galle, a German astronomer to help scientists spot Neptune using a telescope.
- Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846. Neptune is the most distant planet since Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet.
- Neptune is covered by clouds and emanates a blue tint. The blue tint could be due to methane which is known for absorbing red light.
- Just beneath Neptune’s atmosphere is a thick layer of a fluid mixture consisting of methane ice, ammonia, and water. Due to this, it is often referred to as an ice giant.
- The core of Neptune is made of magnesium silicate and iron.
- Neptune has a mass 17 times greater than the mass of Earth but surface gravity is about 17% stronger than earth. The overall volume of Neptune is 58 times that of the earth.
- The magnetic field of the planet is 27 times greater than that of Earth.
- By volume 80% of Neptune’s atmosphere is made of hydrogen. Helium takes up 19% and the rest is methane. Neptune is the densest gaseous planet in the entire solar system.
- If considered by mass, 60-70% of the planet is ice, 25% is rock, and the rest is taken up by hydrogen and helium.
- The amazing fact about Neptune is that despite its great distance from Earth and despite getting enough sunlight to keep the planet warm and drive its atmosphere, the winds on the planet can reach a top speed of 2,400 kilometers an hour which is the fastest wind speed in the solar system.
- The surface temperature of Neptune is about -220 degrees Celsius. It is the coldest planet in the solar system.
- In 1989, Voyager 2 tracked a large dark storm on the southern hemisphere of Neptune called as ‘Great Dark Spot’ which was big enough to engulf the entire Earth.
- Neptune has an oval-shaped elliptical orbit the average distance being 4.5 billion kilometers or 2.8 billion miles from the sun which is about 30 times the distance of Earth from the Sun. It can’t be seen with naked eyes.
- The planet completes one revolution around the Sun in about 165 Earth years. Since its discovery in 1846, the planet completed one revolution in 2011.
- Neptune has 5 rings but they are not easily visible. These rings are not at all uniform and consist of arcs that are thick and bright dust clumps. Scientists believe that these rings are relatively young and not very stable.
- Neptune has 14 known moons. The largest of all moons of Neptune is Triton which was also discovered in 1846 the same year the planet itself was discovered.
- Amazingly Triton is the only large moon that revolves around Neptune in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the planet known as retrograde orbit.
- The only spacecraft to have ever visited Neptune is Voyager 2 of NASA which visited the planet in 1989 passing within 3,000 km of the planet’s north pole discovering 6 moons and the rings of the planet.
Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.informativequotes.com
