Happy 1st Birthday Neptune!
The icy planet Neptune is celebrating its first birthday on 12th July. It will be exactly one Neptunian year - or 164.79 Earth years - since its discovery on 24 September 1846. Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense. On average, Neptune orbits the Sun at a distance of 30.1AU, approximately 30 times the Earth–Sun distance. Its astronomical symbol is ♆, a stylized version of the god Neptune's trident. Neptune lies about 4.4 billion kilometres away from Earth. It was the first planet in the solar system discovered deliberately. It was named after Roman god of the sea.
Neptune cannot be seen from Earth without a telescope or binoculars. It is covered by bright blue methane clouds that whip around the globe at speeds measuring more than 1,600km/h (994mph). It is, on average, about 4.5 billion km from the Sun. The distance between Neptune and the Sun varies by 101 million km depending on where the planet is in its orbit. Its atmosphere is made up of 80% hydrogen, 19% helium and traces of methane. There are 13 known moons which orbit Neptune, the largest of which is Triton.
After the classification of the planet Uranus in the 1780s, astronomers had been perplexed by its strange orbit. Scientists came to the conclusion that either Isaac Newton's laws were fundamentally flawed or that something else - another planet - was pulling Uranus from its expected orbit. So the search for the eighth planet began. Neptune was predicted by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier. The men independently accounted for the irregularities in the motion of Uranus by correctly predicting the orbital elements of a trans-Uranian planet. Using the predicted parameters of Le Verrier (Adams never published his predictions), Johann Galle discovered the planet on the night of 23 September 1846. Galle wanted to name the planet for Le Verrier, but that was not acceptable to the international astronomical community. Instead, this planet is named for the Roman god of the sea.
Many claim it was not Galle who documented the planet first, but the famous astronomer and mathematician Galileo, in his famous work ‘The Starry Messenger’, provided some evidence points to his discovery. Galileo is credited with observing Neptune more than 200 years before its existence was confirmed.
Once again- Happy Birth Day to the Icy Planet!
-R.Surya Prakash Rao
Neptune: Facts & Figures
Discovered By: Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams, Johann Galle
Date of Discovery: 23 September 1846
Orbit Size Around Sun (semi-major axis):
| Metric: 4,498,396,441 km | ||
| English: 2,795,173,960 miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 4.4983964 x 109 km (3.0069923 x 101 A.U.) | ||
| By Comparison: 30.070 x Earth | ||
|
Perihelion (closest): | ||
| Metric: 4,459,753,056 km | ||
| English: 2,771,162,074 miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 4.45975 x 109 km (2.981 x 101 A.U.) | ||
| By Comparison: 30.318 x Earth | ||
| Aphelion (farthest): | ||
| Metric: 4,537,039,826 km | ||
| English: 2,819,185,846 miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 4.53704 x 109 km (3.033 x 101 A.U.) | ||
| By Comparison: 29.830 x Earth | ||
|
Mean Radius: | ||
| Metric: 24,622 km | ||
| English: 15,299.4 miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 2.4622 x 104 km | ||
| By Comparison: 3.8647 x Earth
Mean Circumference: | ||
| Metric: 154,704.6 km | ||
| English: 96,129.0 miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 1.54705 x 105 km | ||
| By Comparison: 3.8647 x Earth | ||
|
Volume: | ||
| Metric: 62,525,703,987,421 km3 | ||
| English: 15,000,714,125,712 mi3 | ||
| Scientific Notation: 6.25257 x 1013 km3 | ||
| By Comparison: 57.723 x Earth | ||
|
Mass: | ||
| Metric: 102,410,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg | ||
| Scientific Notation: 1.0241 x 1026 kg | ||
| By Comparison: 17.148 x Earth | ||
|
Density: | ||
| Metric: 1.638 g/cm3 | ||
| By Comparison: 0.297 x Earth | ||
|
Surface Area: | ||
| Metric: 7,618,272,763 km2 | ||
| English: 2,941,431,558 square miles | ||
| Scientific Notation: 7.6183 x 109 km2 | ||
| By Comparison: 14.980 x Earth | ||
Surface Gravity:
| Metric: 11.15 m/s2 |
| English: 36.6 ft/s2 |
| By Comparison: If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 114 pounds on Neptune. |
Escape Velocity:
| Metric: 84,816 km/h | |
| English: 52,702 mph | |
| Scientific Notation: 2.356 x 104 m/s | |
| By Comparison: By Comparison: 2.105 x Earth. | |
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Sidereal Rotation Period (Length of Day):
| 0.671 Earth days |
| 16.11000 hours |
| By Comparison: 0.67 x Earth |
Sidereal Orbit Period (Length of Year):
| 164.79132 Earth years |
| 60190.03 Earth days |
| By Comparison: 164.791 x Earth |
Average Orbit Velocity:
| Metric: 19,566 km/h |
| English: 12,158 mph |
| Scientific Notation: 5.4349 x 103 m/s |
| By Comparison: 0.182 x Earth |
Orbit Eccentricity:
| 0.00859048 |
| By Comparison: 0.514 x Earth |
|
Orbit Inclination: 1.77 degrees |
Equatorial Inclination to Orbit: 28.3 degrees
Orbit Circumference :
Metric: 28,263,736,967 km
English: 17,562,271,937 miles
Scientific Notation:
2.826 x 1010 km
By Comparison: 30.071 x Earth
Effective Temperatature:
Metric: -214 °C
English: -353 °F
Scientific Notation: 59 K
AtmosphericConstituents:
| Hydrogen, Helium, Methane |
| Scientific Notation: H2, He, CH4 |
| By Comparison: Earth atmosphere consists mostly of N2 and O2. |
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