NEPTUNE
Neptune is the fourth largest and the farthest planet of the Solar System with the most powerful wind speeds out of all the planets. It is the smallest of the gas giants and is the first planet to be discovered by mathematical predictions in 1846.
Through simulations after the Nice model, it has been suggested that both Neptune and Uranus formed closer to the sun and later drifted away. It is hypothesized that the Solar System formed from a giant rotating ball of gas and dust known as the pre-solar nebula.
Since it is the farthest planet from the Sun it has the longest orbital duration, completing a trip around the Sun in about 165 years. However, one sidereal rotation or day on Neptune is completed in 16.11 hours. The average distance from the Sun is about 30.1 AU, while at its perihelion 29.81 AU, and its aphelion 30.33 AU. The elliptical orbit of Neptune is inclined 1.77° compared to that of Earth.
Neptune Facts
- Diameter: 49,528 km
- Mass: 102,410,000,000,000,000 billion kg
- Moons: 14
- Orbit Distance: 4,498,396,441 km (30.10 AU)
- Orbit Period: 60,190.03 days
- Surface Temperature: -201°C
- First Record: September 23rd 1846
- Recorded By: Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier & Johann Galle