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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 ]
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 ...
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 ...
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 distinct ...
Triton dominates the Neptunian moon system, with over 99.5% of its total mass. This imbalance may reflect the elimination of many of Neptune's original satellites following Triton's capture. [4][5] Triton (lower left) compared to the Moon (upper left) and Earth (right), to scale. Triton is the seventh-largest moon and sixteenth-largest object ...
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.