Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet out from the Sun, varying in distance from 4456 to 4537 million km. Neptune was discovered in 1846 because two mathematicians, John Couch Adams in England and Urbain le Verrier in France, worked out that it must be there because of the effect of its gravity on the movement of Uranus. Neptune is so far from the Sun that its orbit lasts 164.79 Earth years. Indeed, it has not yet completed one orbit since it was discovered in 1846.Like Uranus, Neptune has a surface of icy cold liquid methane (-210°C), and an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. This photo of Neptune was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. The Great Dark Spot, and the little white tail of clouds, named Scooter by astronomers, are both clearly visible. Unlike Uranus, which is almost perfectly blue, Neptune has white clouds, created by heat inside the planet.
Neptune has the strongest winds in the Solar System, blowing at up to 700 m per second. Neptune has eight moons, each named after characters from Ancient Greek myths - Naiad, Thalassa, Despoina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton and Nereid. Neptune’s moon Neptune’s moon Triton looks like a green melon, while its icecaps of frozen nitrogen look like pink ice cream.
It also has volcanoes that erupt fountains of ice. Triton is the only moon to orbit backwards. Triton, the biggest of Neptune’s eight moons, is gradually spiralling towards Neptune and in 10 million to 100 million years time will break up and form rings round the planet. Triton’s geysers shoot out frozen nitrogen gas.
The Solar System’s largest moon is bigger than Planets
Neptune is the eighth planet out from the Sun, varying in distance from 4456 to 4537 million km. Neptune was discovered in 1846 because two mathematicians, John Couch Adams in England and Urbain le Verrier in France, worked out that it must be there because of the effect of its gravity on the movement of Uranus. Neptune is so far from the Sun that its orbit lasts 164.79 Earth years. Indeed, it has not yet completed one orbit since it was discovered in 1846.
Like Uranus, Neptune has a surface of icy cold liquid methane (-210°C), and an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. This photo of Neptune was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. The Great Dark Spot, and the little white tail of clouds, named Scooter by astronomers, are both clearly visible. Unlike Uranus, which is almost perfectly blue, Neptune has white clouds, created by heat inside the planet.
Neptune has the strongest winds in the Solar System, blowing at up to 700 m per second. Neptune has eight moons, each named after characters from Ancient Greek myths - Naiad, Thalassa, Despoina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton and Nereid. Neptune’s moon Neptune’s moon Triton looks like a green melon, while its icecaps of frozen nitrogen look like pink ice cream.
It also has volcanoes that erupt fountains of ice. Triton is the only moon to orbit backwards. Triton, the biggest of Neptune’s eight moons, is gradually spiralling towards Neptune and in 10 million to 100 million years time will break up and form rings round the planet.
Triton’s geysers shoot out frozen nitrogen gas. orbiting Jupiter. The Solar System’s largest moon, it is bigger than Planets Neptune is the fourth largest planet. At 49,528 km across, it is slightly smaller than Uranus - hut it is actually a little heavier.
Like Uranus, its oceans of incredibly cold liquid methane make it a beautiful shiny blue, although Neptune's surface is a deeper blue than that of Uranus. Again like Uranus, Neptune has a thin layer of rings. But Neptune’s are level, and not at right angles to the Sun. Neptune has a Great Dark Spot, like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, where storms whip up swirling clouds.
Neptune’s moon Triton is the coldest place in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of -236°C There are little white tail of clouds and great dark spots on Neptune. These clouds are named scooter by scientists. These can clearly be seen in this photo taken by Voyager 2 space craft in 1989. Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet out from the Sun. Its orbit keeps it 1784 million km away on average and takes 84 years to complete.
Uranus tilts so far on its side that it seems to roll around the Sun like a gigantic bowling ball. The angle of its tilt is 98°, in fact, so its equator runs top to bottom. This tilt may be the result of a collision with a meteor or another planet a long time ago. In summer on Uranus, the Sun does not set for 20 years. In winter, darkness lasts for over 20 years.
In autumn, the Sun rises and sets every nine hours. Uranus has 17 moons, all named after characters in William Shakespeare’s plays. There are five large moons - Ariel,Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda. The ten smaller ones were discovered by the Voyager 2 space probe in 1986.
Uranus’ moon Miranda is the weirdest moon of all. It seems to have been blasted apart, then put itself back together again! Because Uranus is so far from the Sun, it is very, very cold, with surface temperatures dropping to -210°C. Sunlight takes just eight minutes to reach Earth, but 2.5 hours to reach Uranus. Uranus’ icy atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium. Winds whistle around the planet at over 2000 km/h - ten times as fast as hurricaneson Earth.
Uranus has its own, very faint set of rings Uranus has an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium gas Uranus’ surface is an ice-cold ocean of liquid methane (natural gas), thousands of kilometres deep, which gives the planet its beautiful colour. If you fell into this ocean even for a fraction of a second, you would freeze so hard that you would shatter like glass.
Uranus was named after Urania, the ancient Greek goddess of astronomy. A Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System - 51,118 km across and with a mass 14.54 times that of the Earth’s. The planet spins round once every 17.24 hours, hut because it is lying almost on its side, this has almost no effect on the length of its day. Instead, this depends on where the planet is in its orbit of the Sun.
Like Saturn, Uranus has rings, but they are much thinner and were only detected in 1977. They are The planet’s surface made of the darkest material in the Solar System. of liquid methane gives it a stunning blue colour Uranus is only faintly visible from Earth. It looks no bigger than a star through a telescope, and was not identified until 1781 (see Herschel). On Uranus in spring, the Sun sets every nine hours span style font-size: large;Neptune is the fourth largest planet.
At 49,528 km across, it is slightly smaller than Uranus - hut it is actually a little heavier. Like Uranus, its oceans of incredibly cold liquid methane make it a beautiful shiny blue, although Neptune's surface is a deeper blue than that of Uranus. Again like Uranus, Neptune has a thin layer of rings. But Neptune’s are level, and not at right angles to the Sun.
Neptune has a Great Dark Spot, like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, where storms whip up swirling clouds. Neptune’s moon Triton is the coldest place in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of -236°C There are little white tail of clouds and great dark spots on Neptune.
These clouds are named scooter by scientists. These can clearly be seen in this photo taken by Voyager 2 space craft in 1989.
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet out from the Sun. Its orbit keeps it 1784 million km away on average and takes 84 years to complete. Uranus tilts so far on its side that it seems to roll around the Sun like a gigantic bowling ball.The angle of its tilt is 98°, in fact, so its equator runs top to bottom. This tilt may be the result of a collision with a meteor or another planet a long time ago. In summer on Uranus, the Sun does not set for 20 years. In winter, darkness lasts for over 20 years. In autumn, the Sun rises and sets every nine hours.
Uranus has 17 moons, all named after characters in William Shakespeare’s plays. There are five large moons - Ariel,Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda. The ten smaller ones were discovered by the Voyager 2 space probe in 1986. Uranus’ moon Miranda is the weirdest moon of all.
It seems to have been blasted apart, then put itself back together again! Because Uranus is so far from the Sun, it is very, very cold, with surface temperatures dropping to -210°C. Sunlight takes just eight minutes to reach Earth, but 2.5 hours to reach Uranus. Uranus’ icy atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium. Winds whistle around the planet at over 2000 km/h - ten times as fast as hurricaneson Earth.
Uranus has its own, very faint set of rings Uranus has an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium gas Uranus’ surface is an ice-cold ocean of liquid methane (natural gas), thousands of kilometres deep, which gives the planet its beautiful colour. If you fell into this ocean even for a fraction of a second, you would freeze so hard that you would shatter like glass.
Uranus was named after Urania, the ancient Greek goddess of astronomy. A Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System - 51,118 km across and with a mass 14.54 times that of the Earth’s. The planet spins round once every 17.24 hours, hut because it is lying almost on its side, this has almost no effect on the length of its day.
Instead, this depends on where the planet is in its orbit of the Sun. Like Saturn, Uranus has rings, but they are much thinner and were only detected in 1977. They are The planet’s surface made of the darkest material in the Solar System. of liquid methane gives it a stunning blue colour Uranus is only faintly visible from Earth. It looks no bigger than a star through a telescope, and was not identified until 1781 (see Herschel). On Uranus in spring, the Sun sets every nine hours
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