An Overview of Planet Neptune
Neptune is the last planet of the solar system if one excludes the dwarf planet Pluto from it and is located at the farthest distance from the Sun as it is the eighth planet too. When it comes to the diameter it is also the fourth largest planet while it also has third most mass too. Neptune is also the densest giant planet too.
Neptune has a mass that is 17 times more than that of the planet Earth and it also has a mass that is slightly more than Uranus which is also considered as its twin planet. It has an orbital period that is quite more than the others while it has a mass and volume of 17.147 Earth’s and 57.74 Earth’s respectively too. Besides all this, it also has a surface gravity of 1.14 g.
Neptune orbits the Sun after every 164.8 years of the planet Earth while it has a distance of 30.1 astronomical units. It is named after the Roman God of the sea while it is also the planet that cannot be seen by the eye and has been known through mathematical calculations.
You will find it has an atmosphere with a surface area that is equivalent to 14.98 Earth’s while it also has a surface temperature of -201 degrees centigrade at a level of 1 bar.
This planet has abundant quantities of many gases in it that include hydrogen, helium, methane, hydrogen deuteride, ethane and ices like ammonia, water, methane ice and ammonium hydrosulphide too. The outer atmosphere is also one of the coldest in the Solar System that can reach -218 degrees centigrade too.
Some Interesting Facts:
While there are lots of facts about this planet, some interesting ones are given as follows
- Neptune has a fragmented ring system that is labelled as arcs
- The temperature at the centre of Neptune is 5,100 degrees centigrade!
- It has 14 moons and 5 rings
- Neptune is not a solid body
- It takes 18 hours to spin on its axis through its equatorial clouds
- Neptune is the smallest when it comes to planets that are ice giants
- The climate on this planet is truly very active and it has large storm whirls throughout the upper atmosphere too. The Great Dark Spot that was formed as a result of storms took five years to disappear back.
- It is the presence of methane gas here which absorbs all the red colour and the planet appears to be blue in colour
- There are high thin clouds present in the upper atmosphere of Neptune
- The collection of rings that the planet Neptune has is very thin and is made up of ice particles and dust grains
- Till today only one spacecraft has flown by Neptune which has returned image of the planet while no one has gone there because of the temperature till now
The above facts and information are all that one need to know about the planet Neptune and these are the most updated facts of all as well.