![]() ![]() Astronomers would not get their first up-close view of Neptune until 1989 when the Voyager 2 spacecraft completed the first-ever flyby of Neptune. For over a hundred years, virtually nothing was known about Neptune. Given Neptune's distance from us, it is not an easy world to study. He was able to predict the orbit of this eighth planet, and in 1846, astronomers pointed their telescopes to the sky and found Neptune, just as the math had predicted. In 1821, Alexis Bouvard predicted that the orbit of Uranus could be explained if another planet was orbiting the sun outside of Uranus's orbit. The orbit of Uranus was tilted so that the mass of Uranus and the gravitational pull of the sun could not explain. After the discovery of Uranus, astronomers were puzzled over its orbit. In 1781, the astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. The discovery of Neptune was tied directly to the discovery of Uranus. Neptune was the latest planet to be discovered in our solar system and, interestingly, the only one to be found using mathematics rather than a telescope. Observational History An Image of Neptune Taken by Voyager 2, NASA Voyager 2 measured the fastest known winds in the solar system, reaching speeds of 1,500 miles per hour (2,400 km/h). This gigantic difference in temperature between Neptune's outer and inner layers is believed to cause Neptune's dynamic weather system. The core of Neptune is predicted to reach temperatures of (7,000 degrees Celsius), while its upper layers reach temperatures as low as minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius). Neptune is a warmer planet despite it being further from the sun than Uranus. Voyager 2 revealed a truly remarkable and complex world. In the 174 years since astronomers found Neptune, it has only been visited by a spacecraft on a single occasion, when Voyager 2 passed by the giant planet in 1989. Still, gravitational perturbations from the other gas giants caused its orbit to migrate outwards. This has led astronomers to predict that Neptune may have formed much closer to the sun than Uranus did. Strangely, it is slightly more massive than Uranus, which is strange given that the mass of the gas giants should increase the closer you get to the sun. ![]() ![]() No further visits to Neptune are planned yet.Orbiting the sun at a distance of 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers), Neptune is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and third-largest by mass, having a diameter of 30,598 miles (49,244 kilometers). The only spacecraft that visited the Neptune is Voyager 2, which closely reached it on 1989. Berlin observatory following predicted path of the unknown planet found the new planet and named it Neptune. They thought that planet must be pulled due to the gravitational pull from another planet, so they used mathematics to predict the path of that unknown planet. When Uranus was discovered in 1781, two scientists observing the Uranus found that the Uranus didn’t follow its predicted path, but it was pulled out of the orbit at some locations. Discovery of Neptune Voyager 2 Spacecraft Then comes the core, which is believed to be made of Iron, Nickel and silicates. Below the atmosphere comes Mantle which is composed of water, ammonia and methane ices. The bluish color of Neptune is due to the presence of methane in its atmosphere. The atmosphere of Neptune is composed of 80% Hydrogen and 19% Helium and small amounts of methane. Composition of Neptune Internal Structure of Neptune Uranus gets the energy directly from its interior to power the storms, unlike the Earth which gets its energy from the Sun to power storms. This storm is big enough that our Earth can fit inside it. When voyager 2 photographed the planet during the flyby, it captured a great storm known as “The Great Dark Spot”. ![]() Neptune has very dynamic weather with extreme storms and wind speeds reaching at 2,200 km/h. Earth-Neptune sizes comparison Atmosphere of Neptune ![]()
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