The numbers
- Diameter
- 30,775mi(49,528 km)
- Distance from the Sun
- 2,805,000,000mi(4,515,000,000 km)
- Length of a year
- 59,800days
- Average temperature
- -330°F(-200 °C)
- Discovered
- In 1846, after it was calculated
To get an idea
Since it was discovered it has completed just one trip around the Sun.
In its atmosphere blow the fastest winds measured in the whole Solar System.
A year on Neptune lasts more than one hundred sixty Earth years.
Fun facts
These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.
It is slightly heavier than Uranus, even though it is a little smaller: it is denser.
It is named after the Roman god of the sea, and its symbol is a simple trident.
Since the day it was discovered it has completed just one trip around the Sun.
It is the only planet in the Solar System that can never be seen with the naked eye from Earth.
Only one probe has flown close to it, Voyager 2, and nobody has been back since.
Test yourself
The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.
Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book
How was Neptune discovered?
Question 2 of 5
What was strange about the orbit of Uranus?
Question 3 of 5
What record does Neptune's atmosphere hold?
Question 4 of 5
How long is a year on Neptune?
Question 5 of 5
What kind of planet is Neptune?
Riddles
First they calculated me and then they looked at me: someone noticed I was disturbing the path of a neighbor, did the math and found me the very same evening. What am I?
I am the farthest of all and the windiest: in my air blow the fastest gusts in this neighborhood, even though from here the central fire is just a dot. What am I?
Since you discovered me I have made just one trip around the fire. None of those who first saw me lived long enough to see me come back. What am I?
Try it yourself
You will not see any detail, and that is fine: the thing to feel is the distance, not the picture.
Take a very long strip of paper and mark the Sun on the left and the Earth one inch away. Neptune would go thirty inches away.
The words
- perturbation
- The small disturbance one body in space causes in the orbit of another.
Sources: Wikidata (Q332), Wikipedia (Nettuno (astronomia)) and NASA.