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Because Neptune is not a solid body, its atmosphere undergoes differential rotation. The wide equatorial zone rotates with a period of about 18 hours, which is slower than the 16.1-hour rotation of the planet's magnetic field. By contrast, the reverse is true for the polar regions where the rotation period is 12 hours.
These oscillations generally occur on a once-monthly or twice-monthly time-scale. The line of its apses precesses gradually with a period of roughly 8.85 years, while its line of nodes turns a full circle in roughly double that time, 18.6 years. [29] This accounts for the roughly 18-year periodicity of eclipses, the so-called Saros cycle ...
In physics, circular motion is movement of an object along the circumference of a circle or rotation along a circular arc. It can be uniform, with a constant rate of rotation and constant tangential speed, or non-uniform with a changing rate of rotation. The rotation around a fixed axis of a three-dimensional body involves the circular motion ...
Position of Neptune (marked with a cross) on the date of its discovery, the September 23rd, 1846. Le Verrier was unaware that his public confirmation of Adams' private computations had set in motion a British search for the purported planet. On 31 August, Le Verrier presented a third memoir, now giving the mass and orbit of the new body.
Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth and slightly larger than Neptune. [a] Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 astronomical units (4.50 × 10 9 km).
If the same sphere were made of lead the small body would need to orbit just 6.7 mm above the surface for sustaining the same orbital period. When a very small body is in a circular orbit barely above the surface of a sphere of any radius and mean density ρ (in kg/m 3), the above equation simplifies to (since M = Vρ = 4 / 3 π a 3 ρ)
For gaseous or fluid bodies, such as stars and giant planets, the period of rotation varies from the object's equator to its pole due to a phenomenon called differential rotation. Typically, the stated rotation period for a giant planet (such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) is its internal rotation period, as determined from the rotation ...
The red ray rotates at a constant angular velocity and with the same orbital time period as the planet, =. S: Sun at the primary focus, C: Centre of ellipse, S': The secondary focus. In each case, the area of all sectors depicted is identical.