Diameter: 49,244 Km
Length of day: 16 Hours 6 Minutes
Length of Year: 165 earth years
Average Temperature: -225 C
Number of moons: 14 moons
Neptune is the farthest, that is the 8th planet in our solar system. On average it is roughly 4.5 billion kilometers away from us. It is the fourth largest planet in our solar system. Neptune is a gas giant and has rings just like any other gas giant in our solar system.
Since it is a gas giant, there is no solid surface on it. It is also known as one of the two ice giants of our solar system(the other one being uranus). It is named after the Roman god of the sea.
Neptune’s atmosphere is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, it also has traces of hydro-carbon and hydrogen. It also has ices such as water, ammonia, and methane.
In 1989, Voyager - 2 became the one and only man made space probe that visited the planet neptune. Several powerful telescopes have observed Neptune. Recently, The James Webb Space telescope has taken pictures of Neptune that are breathtaking.
This is a picture of Neptune and few of its moons taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. That Star-like looking object near the top is Triton, the brightest and biggest moon of Neptune.
Now, for those amateur astronomers, we’re sorry to tell you this but Neptune is not clearly visible with the unaided eye or even with a normal amateur telescope. It might take a really powerful telescope to observe Neptune. Only an observatory telescope or space telescope can do this.
- By Akshit Kumar Sutrakar
References - Wikipedia, Nasa
Source(Images) - Wikipedia, NASA(James Webb Space Telescope)