 Neptune |
2,794 million miles from sun. Diameter: 31,000 miles. Moons: 8. Length of year: 165 Earth years.
Neptune and Uranus are very much alike. They are both large gas planets that look like big blue-green balls in the sky. Like the other gas planets, Neptune has rapidly swirling winds in its atmosphere which blow at over 2000 kilometers per hour! It is thought to contain a deep ocean of water.
Neptune has two thick and two thin rings which surround it.
Neptune also has eight moons.
Four of these moons orbit the planet within the rings.
One of these moons, Triton,
orbits the planet in a direction opposite that of the seven other moons.
The ground breaking Voyager spacecraft found "geysers" on Triton.
Due to Pluto's unusual elliptical shaped orbit, Neptune is actually the farthest planet from the Sun for a 20 year period out of every 248 Earth years. Since 1979, Neptune has been the ninth planet from the Sun. On February 11, 1999, it will cross Pluto's path and once again become the eighth planet from the Sun, where will remain for 228 years.
