Eighth planet from the Sun, discovered in 1846 and named for the Roman god of the sea. It has an average distance from the Sun of 2.8 billion mi (4.5 billion km), taking nearly 164 years to complete one orbit and rotating every 16.11 hours. Neptune has more than 17 times Earth's mass, 58 times its volume, and 12% stronger gravity at the top of its atmosphere. It has an equatorial diameter of 30,775 mi (49,528 km). Neptune consists largely of hydrogen and helium. It has no solid surface; its interior is believed to consist of a fluid mixture of rock, ices, and gas. Its atmosphere contains substantial amounts of methane gas, whose absorption of red light causes Neptune's deep blue-green colour. The Voyager 2 space probe in 1989 discovered winds of over 1,570 mi/hour (700 m/second), the fastest known for any of the Sun's planets, and dark spots that appear to be storms similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Neptune receives little solar radiation, but it radiates substantially more energy than it receives, which indicates an internal heat source. Neptune's weak magnetic field traps charged particles in a belt around the planet. Neptune has a system of rings, made up largely of dust-size particles, and at least 13 moons; the largest is Triton, almost as big as Earth's Moon.
2007-10-11 14:09:18
·
answer #1
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
Discovered in 1846, the 8th planet will not return to the position where scientists first saw it until 2011. Neptune orbits slowly because it is far from the Sun. We cannot see it without a telescope. In size and color, Neptune seems to be a twin to Uranus. But Neptune does not spin on its side; its axis tilts only a little more than Earth's. The orbit of two moons, Triton and Nereid, crisscross the equator diagonally. That's puzzling; more often satellites revolve roughly in line with the equators of the planets they circle.
2007-10-11 14:57:53
·
answer #2
·
answered by Richard_CA 4
·
0⤊
1⤋
Large gas giant in the outer solar system. Named after the roman god of the sea. It's coldest temp is about -215 c. The surface of it is closely related to the suns of about 7,000 c. It has a dark blue spot that is similar to jupiter's red spot. It's atmosphere is composed mainly of Hydrogen, Methane, and Helium.
2007-10-11 14:13:51
·
answer #3
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
So its homework time, and people just post questions here instead of doing a teeny bit of reading.
3 seconds on wikipedia will give you tons of information.
2007-10-11 14:08:51
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
1⤊
0⤋
Here, choose one:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-41,RNWE:en&q=neptune
2007-10-11 14:07:12
·
answer #5
·
answered by misen55 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
You --still-- haven't figured out how to use a search engine?
Doug
2007-10-11 14:18:52
·
answer #6
·
answered by doug_donaghue 7
·
1⤊
0⤋
why can't you google it up which can give you loads of info?
2007-10-11 16:30:55
·
answer #7
·
answered by SIMONE 5
·
0⤊
0⤋