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The term retrograde is from the Latin word retrogradus – "backward-step", the affix retro-meaning "backwards" and gradus "step". Retrograde is most commonly an adjective used to describe the path of a planet as it travels through the night sky, with respect to the zodiac, stars, and other bodies of the celestial canopy. In this context, the ...
On 25 August, in Voyager 2 's last planetary encounter, the spacecraft swooped only 4,950 km (3,080 mi) above Neptune's north pole, the closest approach it had made to any body since it left Earth in 1977. At that time, Neptune was the farthest known body in the Solar System.
[16]: 1 However, it is unlikely that these moons represent Neptune's original regular moon system, as Triton's capture would have been severely destructive to any pre-existing moons around Neptune. Following Triton's capture into a highly eccentric orbit, perturbations would begin to raise the eccentricity of the primordial moons, potentially ...
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Neptune brightened about 10% between 1980 and 2000 mostly due to the changing of the seasons. [177] Neptune may continue to brighten as it approaches perihelion in 2042. The apparent magnitude currently ranges from 7.67 to 7.89 with a mean of 7.78 and a standard deviation of 0.06. [18] Prior to 1980, the planet was as faint as magnitude 8.0. [18]
A celestial object's axial tilt indicates whether the object's rotation is prograde or retrograde. Axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotation axis and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane passing through the object's centre. An object with an axial tilt up to 90 degrees is rotating in the same direction as its primary.
The Earth's magnetic North Pole is currently moving toward Russia in a way that British scientists have not seen before. Scientists have been tracking the magnetic North Pole for centuries ...
Amarillo, Texas, went from a high of 70 degrees to a low of 13 that day. Oklahoma City set both a daily record high (83 degrees) before the front, and a daily record low (17) after the front on ...