Facts about Planet Neptune

20/05/2023

18/05/2023

Interesting Facts About Neptune

1. Neptune is the Most Distant Planet:
This may sound like a pretty simple statement, but it’s actually rather complicated. When it was first discovered by in 1846, Neptune became the most distant planet in the Solar System. But then in 1930, Pluto was discovered, and Neptune became the second-most distant planet. But Pluto’s orbit is very elliptical; and so there are periods when Pluto actually orbits closer to the Sun than Neptune. The last time this happened was in 1979, which lasted until 1999. During that period, Neptune was again the most distant planet.

Then, at the XXVIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union – which took place between Aug 14th and 25th, 2006, in Prague – the issue of which was the most distant planet was visited once again. Confronted with the discovery of many Pluto-sized bodies in the Kuiper Belt – i.e. Eris, Haumea, Sedna and Makemake – and the ongoing case of Ceres, the IAU decided it was time to work out a clear definition of what a planet was.

2. Neptune is the Smallest of the Gas Giants:
With an equatorial radius of only 24,764 km, Neptune is smaller than all the other gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. But here’s the funny thing: Neptune is actually more massive than Uranus by about 18%. Since it’s smaller but more massive, Neptune has a much higher density than Uranus. In fact, at 1.638 g/cm3, Neptune is the densest gas giant in the Solar System.

3. Neptune’s Surface Gravity is Almost Earth-like:
Neptune is a ball of gas and ice, probably with a rocky core. There’s no way you could actually stand on the surface of Neptune without just sinking in. However, if you could stand on the surface of Neptune, you would notice something amazing. The force of gravity pulling you down is almost exactly the same as the force of gravity you feel walking here on Earth.

The gravity of Neptune is only 17% stronger than Earth gravity. That’s actually the closest to Earth gravity (one g) in the Solar System. Neptune has 17 times the mass of Earth, but also has almost 4 times larger. This means its greater mass is spread out over a larger volume, and down at the surface, the pull of gravity would be almost identical. Except for the part where you wouldn’t stop sinking!

4. The Discovery of Neptune is Still a Controversy:
The first person to have seen Neptune was likely Galileo, who marked it as a star in one of his drawings. However, since he did not identify it as a planet, he is not credited with the discovery. That credit goes to French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier and the English mathematician John Couch Adams, both of whom predicted that a new planet – known as Planet X – would be discovered in a specific region of the sky.

When astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle actually found the planet in 1846, both mathematicians took credit for the discovery. English and French astronomers battled over who made the discovery first, and there are still defenders of each claim to this day. Today, the consensus among astronomers is that Le Verrier and Adams deserve equal credit for the discovery.

5. Neptune has the Strongest Winds in the Solar System:
Think a hurricane is scary? Imagine a hurricane with winds that go up to 2,100 km/hour. As you can probably imagine, scientists are puzzled how an icy cold planet like Neptune can get its cloud tops t0 move so fast. One idea is that the cold temperatures and the flow of fluid gasses in the planet’s atmosphere might reduce friction to the point that it’s easy to generate winds that move so quickly.

18/05/2023

18/05/2023

Since 1983, astronomers have known that the young star Fomalhaut was surrounded by a dusty disk. But that disk has never been seen in this much detail.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope studied Fomalhaut in mid-infrared light, and the resulting image displays three nested belts extending to 14 billion miles (22.5 billion kilometers) from the star.

The inner belts were revealed by Webb for the first time. The dark spot in the center of the image is due to detector saturation from the bright central star; useful data could not be acquired at this location.

What unseen objects might be sculpting these rings? https://webbtelescope.pub/3zwIBq0

16/05/2023

The Planet Neptune

Neptune is the fourth and last of the "gas giant" planets in proximity to the Sun. Neptune is the eight planet in our solar system, at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles from the Sun. Like the other gas giants, its rotation is fast, at about 19 hours. Neptune takes 165 years to make one orbit around the Sun and has 13 known satellites.

Atmosphere and Weather: Much of what we know about Neptune's atmosphere is from the Voyager II flyby in 1989. Like Uranus, Neptune has a dynamic atmosphere with a shroud of cold clouds. The average cloud temperature ranges from about -240 degrees to -330 degrees F. Voyager II found the clouds to be ever changing and rapidly circling the planet. Scientists were amazed at how much changeable weather Voyager II observed on Neptune. A couple of interesting features found from Voyager II's flyby were very bright, white cirrus clouds circling the globe rapidly. One cirrus cloud, nicknamed "scooter" was observed to move across the planet every 16 hours! These very high altitude clouds are made of methane ice crystals. The other interesting feature was dubbed the "Great Dark Spot", moving westward at 700 mph.

At first, the "Great Dark Spot" spot appeared to be a very large, cyclonic moving storm, similar to Jupiter's "Great Red Spot" (although the Great Red Spot spins anti-cyclonically). But upon closer inspection, it is likely that Neptune's "Great Dark Spot" is a hole in the methane cloud deck, similar to the ozone hole experienced on Earth. After the Voyager II mission, the Hubble Telescope found that the "Great Dark Spot" had disappeared, but a new oval shaped dark spot had formed in a different location in Neptune's northern hemisphere. The disappearance and subsequent reformation of these dark spots on Neptune is in stark contrast to the stationary "Great Red Spot" storm on Jupiter. Whether the dark spots on Neptune are cyclonically rotating storms or atmospheric holes, Neptune nevertheless displays an extremely dynamic atmosphere, with changes in temperature and very fast wind speeds. The highest winds observed in the solar system have been measured on Neptune with speeds near 1,200 mph near the "older" Great Dark Spot. The equatorial regions of Neptune possess average wind speeds of over 700 mph, which is faster than the speed of sound here on Earth. Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune radiates more hear than it receives. Therefore it has an immense internal heat source. It is hypothesized that Neptune's internal heat source adds to vertical convection, extreme winds speeds and the overall dynamics of the blue planet. The close up view photograph (above) shows Neptune's "Great Dark Spot" (shown slightly left of center) with "scooter" the bright cloud patch, just to the south.

Neptune's thick atmosphere is mostly hydrogen, with smaller amounts of helium and methane. It is the absorption of red light by methane which gives Neptune its very blue coloration. The average temperature on Neptune is a brutally cold -373 degrees F. Triton, Neptune's largest satellite, has the coldest temperature measured in our solar system at -391 degrees F. That is only 68 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than absolute zero, a temperature in which all molecular action stops.

12/05/2023

Interesting Facts About Neptune

t takes Neptune 164.8 Earth years to orbit the Sun. On 11 July 2011, Neptune completed its first full orbit since its discovery in 1846.
Neptune was discovered by Jean Joseph Le Verrier. The planet was not known to ancient civilizations because it is not visible to the naked eye. The planet was initially called Le Verrier after its discoverer. This name, however, quickly was abandoned and the name Neptune was chosen instead.
Neptune is the Roman God of the Sea. In Greek, Neptune is called Poseidon.
Neptune has the second largest gravity of any planet in the solar system – second only to Jupiter.
The orbit path of Neptune is approximately 30 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. This means it is around 30 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The largest Neptunian moon, Triton, was discovered just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered.
Neptune has a storm similar the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. It is commonly known as the Great Dark Spot and is roughly the size of Earth.
Neptune also has a second storm called the Small Dark Spot. This storm is around the same size as Earth’s moon.
Neptune spins very quickly on its axis. The planets equatorial clouds take 18 hours to complete one rotation. The reason this happens is that Neptune does not have a solid body.

10/05/2023

Find all of your favorite Hubble and Webb telescope images in one place: https://www.instagram.com/space_telescopes/

10/05/2023

Teachers are inspiring the Generation!

Looking for Artemis-specific resources for your classrooms? Find them on our web special: https://go.nasa.gov/3pp7Us8

10/05/2023

Facts About New Zealand

1. The first country with universal suffrage
This means that New Zealand was the first country in which the vote for women was approved, in 1893. Long before in most of the countries in the world.

2. The kiwi is not only a fruit
If you travel to Aotearoa, you must be careful when using the word kiwi, since there they use it with three different meanings. A dry kiwi is a person who was born in New Zealand, a kiwi bird is a bird that is also used as a national symbol and, of course, there is the kiwi fruit to refer to the delicious fruit!

3. You can pay with hobbit money
Did you know that Middle Earth can be found in New Zealand? Thanks to the fame that the country gained with the Lord of the Rings saga, New Zealand is the only country in the world that has permission to put hobbits on its legal tender! And, of course, it’s also the only place where you can visit Hobbiton!

4. 30% of the country is a national reserve
If we think of New Zealand, we all come to mind its extensive green hills and forests full of lush vegetation. Mount Cook, Milford Sound, Tongariro, Coromandel… One of the reasons that make this country a natural paradise, as well as the great ecological awareness of its people, is that a third of the country is considered a protected national reserve.

5. The town with the longest name in the world
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. No, we haven’t started pounding on the keyboard to see what came out. This is the name of a town on the east coast of New Zealand and its translation from Maori goes something like this: “The place where Tamatea, the man on the big knees who slipped, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as the land eater, he played the flute to his loved one ”. Funny name for a town, right?