The Neptune

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and some others dwarf planets like Ceres, Pluto etc. are the major celestial object in our solar system.

Have you ever imagined how these celestial objects were discovered?

During the initial stages of exploration of the solar system to observe faint objects in the sky, telescope was used. Galileo was the first person to discover physical details about the celestial objects of the solar system. In 1846, after the discovery of Uranus, discrepancies were noticed that the in the orbit of Uranus, which led to suspiscion that more distant large celestial objects must be perturbing Uranus' orbit. This led to the discovery of the Neptune. Neptune was the only planet whose discovery was based on the mathematical calculation done by Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Galle.

About Neptune

Neptune was discovered on September 23^rd, 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle using mathematical calculations given by Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams. It was the first planet to get its existence predicted by mathematical calculations before it was actually seen through a telescope.

Neptune is the 8^th planet after Uranus from the Sun making it the most distant planet in the solar system. It is the fourth-largest planet with a diameter 49,528 km. The mass of Neptune is 1.02 × 10²⁶ kg which is equal to 17 times the mass of Earth. It has 14 moons out of which Triton is the largest. It has five rings. Neptune takes 164.8 earth years to complete its orbit around the sun. On Aug 25, 1989, Neptune was visited by Voyager 2.

Amazing facts about Neptune.

1.      Neptune was named after the Roman God of the Sea.

2.      Neptune’s atmosphere is made of mostly helium and hydrogen, with some methane. Its atmosphere also contains icy clouds.

3.      The blue color of the planet Neptune is because of methane. It absorbs red light, which makes the planet appear a lovely blue. It has a very active climate.

4.      It has primarily five very thin rings. They are made up of ice particle mixed with dust grains. They're very hard to see.

5.      Neptune has Great Dark Spot. It is located in the southern atmosphere of Neptune. The Great Dark Spot was first discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

6.      The magnetic field of Neptune is roughly 27 times more powerful than Earth's.

7.      It has 14 moons out of which Triton is the only spherical moon.

8.      The average surface temperature of the Neptune is -214^oC.

Written by

Kanchan Ramteke