US media reports: unveiling the mystery of Neptune
April 30th, 2022

Reference News reported on April 24 that the website of Newsweek published a report entitled “six amazing facts about Neptune and its satellites” on February 19. The report tells six interesting facts about Neptune, its satellites and rings. The full text is excerpted as follows:

For astronomers and space explorers, Neptune, an ice giant on the outer edge of the solar system, has long represented both a challenge and a mystery. The black and cold planet farthest from the sun often blows strong supersonic winds. So far, only one spacecraft has visited it.

In September 1846, Neptune was discovered using the predictions of yurban leverier and John Galle. Le Verrier proposed that the planet should be named after the sea god in Roman mythology. In 1989, when Voyager 2 flew out of the solar system, it made a short visit to the ice giant and collected images and important data about the uninhabitable planet.

Here are six interesting facts about Neptune, its moons and rings.

  1. How far is Neptune from us?
  2. As the eighth planet in the solar system, Neptune - on average - is about 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers) from the sun. This is about 30 times the average distance between the earth and the sun.
  3. It takes about four hours for sunlight to reach the ice giant, and Neptune takes 16 hours to rotate. It is very dark. On its cold surface, it looks like dusk on earth at noon.
  4. In fact, Neptune is so far away that it takes 165 Earth years to complete a revolution around the sun. Since Neptune was discovered in 1846, we have only seen it complete one revolution, which was completed in 2011. Neptune is even farther from the sun than Neptune.
  5. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977. Its average speed is 42000 miles per hour. It took about 12 years to fly from earth to Neptune. It’s hard to say how far Neptune is from the earth because they orbit the sun in their respective elliptical orbits.
    1. How big is Neptune?
  6. Neptune is the real “ice giant”. Its radius is about 15300 miles, four times the radius of the earth and its mass is 17 times that of the earth.
  7. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that if the earth is a nickel, Neptune is almost a basketball. This makes Neptune the fourth largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Neptune’s orbit and size are not the only huge thing. Like earth, the ice giant has a 28 degree axis inclination, which means it is a seasonally distinct planet. However, due to the size of its orbit, each season lasts about 40 years.
    1. Why is it blue?
  8. NASA said that about 80% of Neptune’s stars are composed of hot and dense liquids formed from “ice” materials such as water, methane and ammonia, under which is a small rock core. The ice giant has no solid surface.
  9. Some scientists believe that Neptune’s cold clouds may have an ocean of extremely hot water. Sealed off by extreme pressure, the hot water ocean did not evaporate.
  10. “Neptune has the strongest wind in the solar system. The wind passes through its atmosphere at more than 1000 miles per hour,” avi Loeb, a science professor at Harvard University, told Newsweek
  11. Neptune is blue because methane in its upper atmosphere can absorb red light well, which means that the light Neptune reflects back into space is mainly blue light.
    1. How many moons does Neptune have?
  12. Although Neptune is far from the sun and cold, the planet on the periphery of the solar system is not alone. It has at least 14 satellites around it. Just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune, William Russell discovered Triton, the first discovered Neptune moon. Russell is famous for buying binoculars and engaging in the wine business.
  13. Since Neptune is named after the God of the sea in Roman mythology, its satellite is named after the lesser god of the sea and the sea fairy in Greek mythology.
  14. There are several ice volcanoes on the surface of Triton. The volcanoes spewed a mixture of liquid nitrogen, methane and dust into the air at a height of up to five miles. The jet freezes instantly and then returns to the surface in the form of snow.
  15. Triton is the only satellite in the solar system with a retrograde orbit. This means that its orbit is in the opposite direction of Neptune’s rotation.
  16. Not only is Triton warming, but Neptune’s gravitational influence is bringing it closer to the ice giant. “Neptune’s gravity will cause Triton to disintegrate in billions of years. It will become a ring and may eventually be sucked onto Neptune,” Loeb said
  17. Triton has an extremely flat or eccentric orbit. This means that it may actually be an asteroid captured by Neptune’s gravity.
    1. Does Neptune have a ring?
  18. The moon is not Neptune’s only partner. We now know that the ice giant has five large rings of dust and debris. They are Galer ring, leville ring, Russell ring, Arago ring and Adams ring. They are believed to be quite young and will not last long.
  19. The closest ring to Neptune is Galle’s ring, 26000 miles from Neptune, while the farthest ring is Adams’s ring, 39100 miles from Neptune.
  20. In addition to these rings, Neptune’s ring system has four prominent and unique dust clusters, which form a ring arc around Neptune. These arcs are called “freedom”, “equality”, “fraternity” and “courage”. They are strange because, according to the law of motion, they should expand outward rather than remain massive.
  21. Now, researchers believe that it may be the gravitational influence of Titan that keeps them lumpy. Triton is in the middle of these rings.
    1. Why is it important to study Neptune?
  22. Loeb explained to Newsweek the importance of studying the distant ice giant. Although Neptune is different from the earth, it can help us understand the planets outside the solar system.
  23. “Understanding Neptune’s extreme environment allows us to improve our models of planet formation and physical characteristics,” Loeb said
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