Triton is similar in size, density, and surface composition to the dwarf planetPluto. It is thought to be a captured object that perhaps originally formed, like Pluto, as an independent icy planetesimal in the outer solar system. At some point in Neptune’s early history, Triton’s orbit around the Sun may have carried it too near the giant planet. Gas drag in Neptune’s extended atmosphere or a collision with an existing moon of Neptune slowed Triton enough to place it in an elongated orbit, which was also retrograde and highly inclined. Tidal interactions between Triton and Neptune—cyclic deformations in each body caused by the gravitational attraction of the other—selectively retarded Triton in the closer portions of its orbit, eventually circularizing its path around Neptune. The process from capture to circular orbit may have taken more than one billion years, during which time the enormous tidal deformations experienced by Triton most likely melted its entire interior. The molten body would have undergone differentiation, the denser material sinking into a core region and the more-volatile materials rising to the surface.
It is thought that Triton’s surface cooled faster than its interior and formed a thick outer layer of predominantly waterice. As subsurface water subsequently froze, it expanded, fracturing the outer ice layer and flowing through and filling the cracks. The intersecting fractures visible in Voyager images of Triton’s surface provide strong corroborating evidence for the existence of water ice inside this moon, since no other candidates for Triton’s subsurface composition expand as they freeze.
clouds in Neptune's atmosphereClouds in Neptune's atmosphere, photographed by Voyager 2 in August 1989. The view is from below the planet's equator, and north is up. The Great Dark Spot (centre left) is 13,000 km (8,100 miles)—about the diameter of Earth—in its longer dimension. Accompanying it are bright, wispy clouds thought to comprise methane ice crystals. At higher southern latitudes lies a smaller, eye-shaped dark spot with a light core (bottom left). Just above that spot is a bright cloud dubbed Scooter. Each of these cloud features was seen to travel eastward but at a different rate, the Great Dark Spot moving the slowest.
Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846. It is the second planet to be found using a telescope. Although Johann Gottfried Galle and Heinrich Louis d’Arrest have the distinction of having been the first individuals to identify Neptune in the night sky, credit for its “discovery” was eventually credited to John Couch Adams and Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier.
How many moons does Neptune have?
Neptune has 14 moons (natural satellites). Before Voyager 2’s flyby of the planet, Neptune’s only known moons were Triton and Nereid. Neptune’s moons are named after figures in Greek mythology usually connected with Poseidon or with water.
What gases are present in Neptune’s atmosphere?
Neptune’s outer atmosphere is composed predominantly of hydrogen and helium, contributing to 98 percent of the atmospheric molecules. Most of the remainder consist of methane gas. Hydrogen and helium are nearly invisible, but the presence of methane gives Neptune a bluish cast.
Can Neptune be seen without a telescope?
Neptune is the only giant planet that is not visible without a telescope. It has an apparent magnitude of 7.8 and is approximately one-fifth as bright as the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye. Hence, there were no observations of Neptune before the use of telescopes.
What is the color of Neptune?
Neptune’s color is a very vivid, bright blue, presumably an effect of the presence of methane and an unidentified atmospheric gas. With a small telescope, it appears as a tiny, faint blue-green disk.
Neptune, third most massive planet of the solar system and the eighth and outermost planet from the Sun. Because of its great distance from Earth, it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. With a small telescope, it appears as a tiny, faint blue-green disk. It is designated by the symbol ♆.
Neptune is named for the Roman god of the sea, who is identified with the Greek deity Poseidon, a son of the TitanCronus (the Roman god Saturn) and a brother of Zeus (the Roman god Jupiter). It is the second planet to have been found by means of a telescope. Its discovery in 1846 was a remarkable combination of the application of solid Newtonian physics and a belief in a numerological scheme that later proved to be scientifically unfounded (see belowNeptune’s discovery). Neptune’s orbit is almost perfectly circular; as a result, its distance from the Sun varies comparatively little over its nearly 164-year period of revolution. Although the dwarf planetPluto’s mean distance from the Sun is greater than Neptune’s, its orbit is so eccentric (elongated) that for about 20 years of each revolution Pluto is actually nearer the Sun than is Neptune.
Planetary data for Neptune
*Time required for the planet to return to the same position in the sky relative to the Sun as seen from Earth.
**Calculated for the altitude at which 1 bar of atmospheric pressure is exerted.
mean distance from Sun
4,498,396,000 km (30.1 AU)
eccentricity of orbit
0.0086
inclination of orbit to ecliptic
1.77°
Neptunian year (sidereal period of revolution)
164.79 Earth years
visual magnitude at mean opposition
7.8
mean synodic period*
367.49 Earth days
mean orbital velocity
5.43 km/sec
equatorial radius**
24,764 km
polar radius**
24,340 km
mass
1.02 × 1026 kg
mean density
1.64 g/cm3
gravity**
1,115 cm/sec2
escape velocity**
23.6 km/sec
rotation period (magnetic field)
16 hr 7 min
inclination of equator to orbit
28.3°
magnetic field strength at equator (mean)
0.14 gauss
tilt angle of magnetic axis
46.8°
offset of magnetic axis
0.55 of Neptune's radius
number of known moons
14
planetary ring system
6 rings, 1 containing several arcs
Neptune is almost four times the size of Earth but slightly smaller than Uranus, which makes it the smallest in diameter of the four giant, or Jovian, planets. It is more massive than Uranus, however, having a density roughly 25 percent higher. Like the other giant planets, Neptune consists primarily of hydrogen, helium, water, and other volatile compounds, along with rocky material, and it has no solid surface. It receives less than half as much sunlight as Uranus, but heat escaping from its interior makes Neptune slightly warmer than Uranus. The heat liberated may also be responsible for the storminess in Neptune’s atmosphere, which exhibits the fastest winds seen on any planet in the solar system.
Witness the arrival of Voyager 2 at Neptune after a 12-year journey, August 25, 1989Voyager 2 arriving at Neptune after a 12-year journey, August 25, 1989.
Neptune has 14 moons (natural satellites), only two of which had been discovered before the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past the planet in 1989, and a system of rings, which had been unconfirmed until Voyager’s visit. As is the case for Uranus, most of what astronomers know about Neptune, including its rotation period and the existence and characteristics of its magnetic field and magnetosphere, was learned from a single spacecraft encounter. In recent years new knowledge of the Neptunian system has come as a result of advances in Earth-based observational technology.
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