NEPTUNE

Mario Goni, Emily Garcia, Samantha Castillo

NEPTUNE

Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun at 2.8 billion

miles away.

It has a radius of 15,299 miles.

It has 5 rings, and 13 moons.

Neptune is blue/green in color and is known for

having it’s Great Dark Spot.

It is the last hydrogen/helium gas giant in the solar

system.

NEPTUNE’S FORMATION

There are two possible ways Neptune was formed, the more

logical and modern one being called the disk instability model.

In this process, clumps of dust and gas are bound together

early in the life of the solar system.

Over time, they combine to form into a giant planet.

This could take as little as a thousand years, allowing time

for the planet to trap the rapidly-vanishing lighter gases and

avoid a warm death by the sun.

INTERIOR

Onions have layers, so do planets

Neptune’s interior consists of mainly helium, hydrogen and methane.

The inner core is suspected to be made of a rocky iron or rock and ice.

It also has the greatest portion of core per planet size.

The mantle is an icy liquid including water, ammonia, and methane

ices.

The crust/atmosphere is made of fluid hydrogen, helium and methane.

Neptune’s upper atmosphere is made of clouds.

NEPTUNE’S INTERIOR

EXTERIOR

The atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen, helium and methane.

The upper atmosphere contains some white clouds of frozen methane.

These appear as continually changing bands between the equator and

the poles of Neptune.

It has a very active weather system with an average surface

temperature of

-225 degrees Celsius, the coldest in the solar system.

It has the solar system’s strongest winds, exceeding 1000 km.

EXTERIOR CONT.

Diameter: 49,530 km or 3.9 times Earth’s diameter

Density: 1.6 g/cm^3 or 30% of Earth’s surface density

Surface Gravity: 1.2 times Earth’s surface gravity

The poles are tipped over at 47 degrees, and has a magnetic field

27 times more powerful than earth’s causing wild swings during

each rotation.

It is the smallest gas giant in the whole solar system.

Neptune is blue/green in color.

The planet can not sustain life as we know it.

RINGS

Neptune has 5 rings called Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago,

and Adams, named after the astronomers who each made an

important discovery about the planet.

The rings contain 20-70% dust, and small rocks.

The rings are very difficult to see because they are so dark,

and vary in density and size.

It is believed the rings are very young for the planet and

were probably formed when a moon traveled too close to

Neptune and was torn apart by gravity.

RINGS CONT.

The Galle ring is the closest at 41,000-43,000 km away

from Neptune.

The La Verrier ring is very narrow, only about 113

kilometers wide.

The Lessell ring is the widest of Neptune’s rings, at

4,000 km wide, 53,200-57,200 km from Neptune.

The Arago ring is 57,200 km from the planet and only

100 km wide.

THE ADAMS RING

The very outer ring, Adams, is narrow at only 35 km wide, yet still the

most famous because of its 5, law defying arcs.

Adam’s arcs are areas where the materials of the ring are clumped

together .

The three most famous of the arcs are Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity.

The arcs are the brightest parts of the rings and were the first to be

discovered.

Scientists are unable to explain the arcs because according to the laws of

motion, the materials should have been distributed uniformly through the

rings.

NEPTUNE’S RINGS

In 2005 it was discovered that the rings are much more unstable than originally thought, and some are actually dwindling away rapidly.

ORBIT

Neptune has an orbital period of 165 years/60,190

Earth days.

Recently completed its first orbit in 2011 since its

original discovery in 1846.

It has a day length of 16 hours and 6 minutes.

At some points during its rotation, Pluto is actually

closer to the sun and Earth than Neptune, since Pluto

has an unusual elliptical orbit.

NE

PT

UN

E’S

OR

BIT

UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS

First, it is the last non-controversial planet in the solar

system, yet discovered

Once Uranus had been discovered, perturbations in its

orbit were seen. Calculations were made and it was

predicted, that there should be a planet within a certain

patch of sky. Within hours, Neptune was discovered in

1846.

This makes it the first planet to be discovered by

mathematical calculations

NEPTUNE’S MOONS

Neptune has 13 official moons and one awaiting

confirmation.

They are all named after lesser sea gods and

nymphs from Greek mythology: Triton, Nereid,

Naiad, Larissa, Proteus, Galatea, Thalassa, Despina,

Halimede, Neso, Psamathe, Laomedeia and Sao.

There are six inner moons, two large center moons

and 5 outer moons.

THE INNER MOONS

The inner moons consist of Naiad, Thalassa,

Despina, Galatea, Larissa, and Proteus.

Naiad is 36 miles in diameter.

Thalassa is 50 miles in diameter.

Despina is 92 miles in diameter.

Galatea is 98 miles in diameter.

Larissa is 120 miles in diameter.

Proteus is 260 miles in diameter.

THE CENTER MOONSTriton is 1,677 miles in diameter and is the largest of the moons,

discovered in the same year as Neptune.

It is the only spherical moon of Neptune.

It is one of the 4 moons known to have an actual atmosphere and

is the only moon of Neptune’s to have a retrograde orbit. This

suggests that it may have been a dwarf planet that was captured

into orbit by Neptune.

In 2010, seasons were discovered on Triton.

Scientists fear that Neptune’s gravity is pulling Triton closer to

the planet, and eventually it will be torn apart.

TRITON

THE CENTER MOONS CONT

Nereid is the third largest moon, behind Proteus

(260 miles), at 211 miles in diameter.

It is also one of the largest irregular moons in the

solar system.

This means it has an orbit that is highly inclined

to the planets equator.

NEREID

THE OUTER MOONS

The outer moons consist of Halimede, Sao,

Laomedia, Neso and Psamathe.

Halimede has a diameter of 19 miles.

Sao has a diameter of 12 miles.

Laomedia has a diameter of 12 miles.

Neso has a diameter of 19 miles.

Phamathe has a diameter of 12 miles.

NEW MOON?A new possible moon was discovered in 2013 orbiting 65, 400

miles away from Neptune.

It is expected to be no more than 12 miles across, making it the

smallest moon to orbit Neptune. It completes one revolution around

Neptune every 23 hours.

It is so tiny that it was even overlooked while the Voyager 2

spacecraft flew by in 1989 to survey the planet’s system of moons

and rings..

It still has to wait for discovery conformation before it can be

considered the official 14th moon.

THE GREAT DARK SPOT

It is a depression in the atmosphere surrounded by high cirrus

clouds.

A few years after the Voyagers found it, it had disappeared

(Hubble Space Telescope). Then, in 1995, it reappeared in

Neptune's northern hemisphere.

However, Neptune's Great Dark Spot does not appear to be

stable.

When the Great Dark Spot was first discovered, it was thought

to be moving very slowly. It wasn’t until Neptune's rotation rate

was finally determined, that we realized the Great Dark Spot

wasn't actually moving slowly with the planet, but instead was

moving in a direction opposite the planet's spin, at almost

supersonic speeds. These are ten times hurricane speeds on

Earth.

THE GREAT DARK SPOT

TARGET QUESTIONS

17:Neptune’s Great Dark Spot was a giant

storm.

23: Kepler’s second law states that equal areas

are covered in equal amounts of time as an object

orbits the sun.

26: Which of the following planets is similar to

Uranus in terms of its size and mass? Neptune

VIDEOS

Sounds of Neptune: https://youtu.be/B7rKidTOgxk

Ten Facts: https://youtu.be/61eeWs6mnO8

Neptune song (so sorry): https://

youtu.be/GNzNk0ad9iE