Context On Neptune
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Neptune
is like Uranus in many ways, but has its own unique features. Because of Pluto's
highly elliptical
orbit, it is currently the most distant planet from the Sun, at a separation
of about 30 Astronomical Units. The full disk of Neptune in shown in the
adjacent image (Ref).
Neptune has been particularly challenging to study from the ground because its disk is small and badly blurred by the Earth's atmosphere at that distance. In spite of this, ground-based astronomers had learned a great deal about this planet since its position was first predicted by Adams and Leverrier in 1845. However, our most detailed information about Neptune has come from the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989.
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun. It orbits the Sun every 165 years at a mean distance of 30.1 times that of the Earth (Astronomical Units). It has a diameter of 48,000 kilometers and a mass 17 times that of the Earth. It is the furthest of the giant gaseous planets from the Sun and has a rotation period of about 19 hours. The structure of the planet is that there is a rocky core surrounded by a jacket of ice which is, in turn, surrounded by an eight thousand kilometer deep atmosphere. This atmosphere is composed mainly of molecular hydrogen with clouds of methane. The temperature of what is seen as the disk is -220°C.
(Information Gathered by Google.com)
