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Did you know that Neptune is one of the most amazing of the outer planets? It is the smallest of the giant gas planets, but it might be a twin of Uranus. Both planets may have been formed from a collection of millions of comets which once orbited the Sun. Neptune is smaller than Uranus, but it is more dense (thicker).

Did you know that Neptune is 1.8 billion miles from the sun? The Earth is 93 million miles from the sun, so Neptune is about 20 times farther away from the Sun than the Earth is.

Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846 by Johann Galle. The new planet was named after a Roman god of the sea because its color was blue and it looked like the ocean. Very little was known about Neptune until 1989 when Voyager 2 flew by the planet and learned more information about its rings, moons, and atmosphere. We now know that Neptune’s atmosphere contains a thick layer of clouds and the temperature on its cloud tops is about minus 200 degrees Celsius. Neptune is so cold because it is one of the outer planets and it is so far from the Sun.

Did you know that Neptune is 50 times bigger than the earth and is the outermost of the giant planets? Neptune is so large that you can fit four Earths in its equator. The planet takes 165 Earth years to travel once around its BIG orbit, which is one year on Neptune. It rotates once every 18 hours and 12 minutes which is one day on Neptune.

Even though Neptune is large, it can not be seen from Earth unless you have a telescope. Even with a telescope you would still not be able to see anything but a green glare of light.

Did you know that Neptune has large, dark ovals on its surface which astronomers believe may be storms like hurricanes? Neptune is one of the giant gas planets. It is made out of hydrogen, helium and methane. The methane gas freezes and forms an ice cloud which throws a shadow on the clouds below. It gets a brilliant, green glare from the methane gas. Under its outer atmosphere are thicker layers of gases and then liquids, mostly hydrogen. The planet’s core is so hot, it is a ball of molten rock. Its center is hatter than 7000 degrees Celsius.

Did you know that Neptune has four faint rings that are quite narrow around its planet and cannot be seen from Earth even with the most powerful telescopes? In ten or one hundred million years, it may have more than seventeen million rings around the planet if the moon Triton crashes into Neptune.

Did you know that Neptune has eight moons? Two of them, named Triton and Nereid, are very large. The other six moons are much smaller in size and were discovered by Voyager 2. Triton is Neptune’s largest moon and is bigger and heavier than the Earth’s moon. It is 2,700 kilometers across. Its crust is frozen hard as stone at minus 235 degrees Celsius. Geysers of nitrogen can be seen at its south pole. Triton circles Neptune in six Earth’s days but it circles it backwards. In ten or one hundred million years Triton is expected to hit Neptune and be torn apart to create more rings. This is because triton is being pulled towards Neptune by its gravity. Nereid is Neptune’s second largest moon. It has 340 kilometer wind speed per hour on its surface. Astronomers think that Pluto may have been a moon of Neptune at one time.

These are Neptune’s moon, with their diameters and how far away they are from the Sun.

Naiad 58 km 48,227 km

Thalassa 80 km 50,074 km

Despina 148 km 52,526 km

Galetea 158 km 61,953 km

Larissa 208 km 73,548 km

Proteus 436 km 117,647 km

Triton 2,704 km 354,300 km

Nereid 340 km 551,500 km

Because Neptune is tilted, it has seasons. Neptune’s seasons last 40 years long. Any season on Neptune will be much colder than the seasons on Earth. That means the summers are colder than the Earth’s summers. The temperature on Neptune is very cold. In fact it is 346 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Neptune has the fiercest winds in the universe. Winds of 1400 miles per hour have been discovered on Neptune.

People can not live on Neptune because it is too cold. It doesn’t have an atmosphere of oxygen which people need to breathe. It has other gases methane, hydrogen and helium which people can’t breathe. It is not safe to live on Neptune. It has no gravity and comets could hit it because it has no gravity. So you can see that not people could live there.