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Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times the mass of Earth. Compared to its fellow ice giant Uranus, Neptune is slightly more massive, but denser and smaller.
Discovery of Neptune. New Berlin Observatory at Linden Street, where Neptune was discovered observationally. Neptune as imaged by the Voyager 2 probe in 1989. The planet Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet ...
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).
Rings of Neptune imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam instrument. The rings of Neptune consist primarily of five principal rings.They were first discovered (as "arcs") by simultaneous observations of a stellar occultation on 22 July 1984 by André Brahic's and William B. Hubbard's teams at La Silla Observatory (ESO) and at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile. [1]
In order of distance from Neptune, the regular moons are Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Hippocamp, and Proteus. All but the outer two are within Neptune- synchronous orbit (Neptune's rotational period is 0.6713 day or 16 hours [20]) and thus are being tidally decelerated. Naiad, the closest regular moon, is also the second smallest ...
Proteus (/ ˈ p r oʊ t i ə s / PROH-tee-əs), also known as Neptune VIII, is the second-largest Neptunian moon, and Neptune's largest inner satellite. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989, it is named after Proteus , the shape-changing sea god of Greek mythology . [ 11 ]
Exploration of Neptune. Photograph of Neptune in true colour by Voyager 2 in 1989. [a] Neptune's south pole is slightly above the bottom of the image. Neptune has been directly explored by one space probe, Voyager 2, in 1989. As of 2024, there are no confirmed future missions to visit the Neptunian system, although a tentative Chinese mission ...
If the Sun–Neptune distance is scaled to 100 metres (330 ft), then the Sun would be about 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter (roughly two-thirds the diameter of a golf ball), the giant planets would be all smaller than about 3 mm (0.12 in), and Earth's diameter along with that of the other terrestrial planets would be smaller than a flea (0.3 mm or 0. ...