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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 ...
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were identified by ancient Babylonian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BC. [7] They were correctly identified as orbiting the Sun by Aristarchus of Samos, and later in Nicolaus Copernicus ' heliocentric system [8] (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 1543) Venus. 2nd Planet.
The long orbital period of Neptune means that the seasons last for forty Earth years. [110] Its sidereal rotation period (day) is roughly 16.11 hours. [12] Because its axial tilt is comparable to Earth's, the variation in the length of its day over the course of its long year is not any more extreme.
Plot 1 is viewed from the north ecliptic pole, to scale. Plots 2 to 4 are third-angle projections at 20% scale. In the SVG file, hover over a trajectory or orbit to highlight it and its associated launches and flybys. Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program.
The Great Dark Spot (also known as GDS-89, for Great Dark Spot, 1989) was one of a series of dark spots on Neptune similar in appearance to Jupiter 's Great Red Spot. In 1989, GDS-89 was the first Great Dark Spot on Neptune to be observed by NASA 's Voyager 2 space probe. Like Jupiter's spot, the Great Dark Spots are anticyclonic storms.
720,000 km/h (450,000 mi/h) [10] Orbital period. ~230 million years [10] The Solar System[d] is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. [11] It formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc.
Discovery observation: 24 September 1846. The 9" refractor which was used to discover Neptune is at Deutsches Museum in Munich today. Le Verrier was unaware that his public confirmation of Adams' private computations had set in motion a British search for the purported planet.
Resonance in Jupiter and Saturn's orbits moves Neptune out into the Kuiper belt. Late Heavy Bombardment occurs in the inner Solar System. [2] 800 million years 3.8 bya: Oldest known life on Earth. [81] [142] Oort cloud reaches maximum mass. [84] 4.6 billion years Today: Sun remains a main-sequence star. [117] 6 billion years 1.4 billion years ...