NEPTUNE 101

Neptune is the most distant of the solar system's eight planets. Find out about
the blue world's orbit, which of Neptune's moons is the largest, and how the
planet is home to the most severe weather in the solar system.
3 MINUTE READ

BY MAYA WEI-HAAS

N E P T U N E M A Y S E E M  like
a serene sapphire world at first glance. But
don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is
a wild child.

Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up

momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour. That
soothing sapphire expanse does reveal some of the whirling chaos below
in the form of cloudy bands and massive gyres that look like dark
smudges on its surface.

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One “Great Dark Spot” captured by Voyager 2 in 1989 could have fit an

entire Earth inside. Though it's since disappeared, others have taken its
place. In March of 2019, astronomers revealed for the first time that
they witnessed the birth of one of Neptune's massive storms. Nearly as
big as the maelstrom that Voyager documented, the baby storm seemed
to take shape from bright white clouds between 2015 through 2017,
emerging as a full-fledged gyre in 2018.

Dreaming of blue
Orbiting at a distance of roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun,
Neptune is the furthest planet yet discovered in our solar system (that
is, after Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006). Neptune
rotates quickly compared to Earth, with one day taking 16 Earth hours.
But its great distance from the sun means the years are long, requiring
165 Earth years to make one trip around our glowing star.

At such a distance from Earth, Neptune is the solar system's only planet
that can't be seen in our night sky without a telescope. Even
neighboring Uranus, though faint, glints overhead on a clear dark night.
That means that Neptune wasn't an easy planet to discover. Some
suggest that Galileo Galilei first spotted Neptune as early as 1613. Many
believe that he mistook it for a star at the time, yet some scientists think
that may not be the case.

Most attribute Neptune's discovery to mathematical mastery in the

1800s. After the discovery of Uranus at the turn of the century,
astronomers noticed it seemed to be affected by a strange gravitational
tug. This oddity led British mathematician John Couch Adams to
calculate Neptune's potential position in the 1840s. A couple of years
later, French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier did the same.

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NEPTUNE
Neptune's Great Dark Spot is clearly visible in this image of the planet, taken in
1989 by Voyager 2.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA
NEPTUNE AND TRITON
Neptune's largest moon, Triton, hovers beneath the planet in this image taken by
Voyager 2 in 1989. Triton is the only large moon in the solar system that has a
retrograde orbit, meaning it circles its planet in a direction opposite to the
planet's rotation.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA
TRITON
The largest of Neptune's 13 moons, Triton is one of only three objects in the
solar system known to have a nitrogen-dominated atmosphere. The others are
Earth and the Saturn moon Titan.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA
NEPTUNE CLOUDS
Bands of clouds streak across Neptune in this image snapped by Voyager 2. The
planet's blue color comes from methane in the atmosphere and another
component that's a mystery to astronomers.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NASA/JPL

The calculations were finally confirmed in 1846 when German

astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle used Le Verrier's predictions to
locate the ice giant, which was dubbed Neptune after the Roman god of
the sea.

Frosty but hot

Neptune is just one of two ice giants in our cosmic family, along with
Uranus. It's blanketed in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, with
traces of methane, water, and ammonia. Underneath an initial chilly
layer, temperatures and pressures rapidly increase.

Deep under its cloud tops, Neptune might sport a vast, roiling-hot
ocean of water that envelops its rocky core. But not all scientists
agree that the planet is cool enough for such liquid to stick around
without evaporating.

Methane in the atmosphere reflects blue light, painting the world in

vibrant color. In most pictures, Neptune seems to be a deeper and more
brilliant blue than Uranus, which looks like a pale turquoise dot. But
Neptune is likely similarly pale as its neighbor and just appears
darker in images because of its greater distance from the sun.
Still, according to NASA, there may be some other, unknown
component of Neptune's atmosphere that colors the world a slightly
different hue.

S O L A R S Y S T E M 1 0 1 How many planets are in the solar system? How did it

form in the Milky Way galaxy? Learn facts about the solar system's genesis, plus
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Celestial tagalongs
Neptune has 14 known moons as of 2019. Its largest celestial tagalong,
Triton, is the solar system's only large moon that has a retrograde orbit,
which means it zips around Neptune in the opposite direction than its
host planet's rotation. This curious orbital direction may be evidence
that it wasn't always a moon.

Instead, researchers propose Triton started as a binary system—similar

to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. As it passed by,
Neptune's gravity kidnapped Triton from the pair and trapped it in
orbit. Triton has a thin atmosphere that seems to be growing warmer,
but scientists are unsure why.

Five known rings of rocks and dust encircle Neptune—all named after
astronomers who helped bring to light details about the windy world.
The ring names are Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams.
Neptune also has several partial rings, known as arcs.

Only one spacecraft has ever visited the dark blue world. Voyager 2
whipped by in 1989, collecting captivating data and images. Though
many scientists have proposed additional visits, none have yet been
approved.

Until another plan is crafted to visit Neptune, researchers will have to

appease their curiosity from afar, capitalizing on observations from
the Hubble Space Telescope as well as telescopes that have their bases
firmly planted on the ground.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/neptune/