Neptune

Uranus be exposed in 1781 but as the years accepted, it became obvious that the planet did not move as probable. The judgment was causing the trouble caused by an unknown planet located at a greater distance. John Couch Adams in England estimated a situation for the new planet while Galle and diarist in France undertake the search based on the calculations of Le Verrier.

Neptune does not meet portend law of terrestrial distances and because it is the third most massive planet in the Solar System (Uranus is somewhat higher but its mass is less) this would indicate that the law is a new match.

Galileo and I have observed is body, named after the sea god in Greek mythology, in January 1613 while studying Jupiter but did not realize that this was a new planet.

Neptune moves in an orbit one and half times farther from the Sun and Uranus when Voyager approached Neptune II had not yet passed one year of the planet (165 Earth years) since its discovery and will not end until 2011.

Neptune, accompany by his ordinary satellite Triton.

The planet receives about a thousand times less sunlight than Earth but its temperature is -215 ° C, as Uranus. Neptune emits three times more energy than it receives from the Sun. It is believed that this planet has a rocky core of silicon, iron and other heavy elements, which is covered by a liquid mantle of methane, ammonia and water. Voyager II oval record several storms in the atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane and measured winds to the east of 965 kilometers per hour and other westward traveling at 2415 km. / Hr. The biggest storm of Neptune, a hurricane the size of Earth was seen at about 20 ° below the Ecuador and was called "The Great Dark Spot" by analogy with the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.

Left, the Great Dark Spot, right, other features in its atmosphere.

Has rings although these are diffuse and the material of which are composed is very fine. Earth-based astronomers were able to observe only ring arcs, that is, incomplete rings but cameras showed that the U.S. probe these rings are actually a complete revolution around the globe covering Neptunian. the observation of ring arcs is now attributed to the passage of a small satellite by the ring area. These were named in order of proximity to the planet N3R 1989, 1989 n2r, 1989 and 1989 N1R N4R whose characteristics are found in the tables following the chapter on the moons of the planets.

Data:

49,500 km diameter

Diam / Earth 3.92

Earth / Earth 17.2

1.5 Density

Gravity / Land 1.15

Ecuador inclination to the plane of the planet's orbit 29 °

Sidereal rotation period in days, hours, minutes and seconds 16 hours 3 minutes

Distance to Sun in million km Minimum: 4,456 / Max: 4,537 / Media: 4,497

Distance to the sun in AU 30.1

Tilt the plane of the planet's orbit with respect to land 1 º 47’

Sidereal period of revolution in Years, Days Years and 164 Days / 280 Days / 7 Hours

Number of satellites (the most important) 8