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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 and slightly more massive, but denser and smaller, than fellow ice giant Uranus.
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 (Latin: Neptūnus [nɛpˈtuːnʊs]) is the god of freshwater and the sea in the Roman religion. [2] He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon . [ 3 ] In the Greek-inspired tradition , he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto , with whom preside over the realms of heaven , the earthly world (including the underworld ), and the seas. [ 4 ]
Neptune was discovered in 1846 and is located 30 times farther from the sun than Earth. The planet's 164-year orbit takes it through some of the darkest and most remote regions of the outer solar ...
Neptune brightened again in 2015, before darkening in 2020 to the lowest level ever seen. That’s when most of the cloud cover faded away. “Even now, four years later, the most recent images we ...
The rings of Neptune are made of extremely dark material, likely organic compounds processed by radiation, similar to those found in the rings of Uranus. [ 5] The proportion of dust in the rings (between 20% and 70%) is high, [ 5] while their optical depth is low to moderate, at less than 0.1. [ 6] Uniquely, the Adams ring includes five ...
Regular moons. 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 ...
Neptune's rings had been observed from Earth many years prior to Voyager 2 's visit, but the close inspection revealed that the ring systems were full circle and intact, and a total of four rings were counted. [4] Voyager 2 discovered six new small moons orbiting Neptune's equatorial plane, dubbed Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa and ...