Neptune

Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant
planet in our solar system.

More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system
not visible to the naked eye and the first predicted by mathematics before its discovery. In 2011
Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846.

NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune up close. It flew past in 1989 on
its way out of the solar system.

Giant
– Neptune is about four times wider than earth. If earth were just a large apple. The Neptune
would be the size of basketball.

Eighth Wanderer
– Neptune orbit our sun, a star, and is the eighth planet from the sun at a distance of about
2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometer).

Short day, Long year

– Neptune takes 16 hours to rotate (a Neptunian day) and about 165 earth years to orbit
the sun (Neptunian year).

Ice Giant
– Neptune is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of “icy” materials- water,
methane and ammonia - above a small rocky core.

Gassy
– Neptune’s atmosphere is made up mostly of molecular hydrogen, atomic helium and
methane.
Many Moons
-Neptune has 13 moons (and one more awaiting confirmation and discovery), which are
named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek Mythology.

Faint Rings
-Neptune has six known rings.

One Voyage There

-Voyager two is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune. No spacecraft has orbited this
distant planet to study it at length and up close.

Lifeless
-Neptune cannot support life as we know it.

One Cool Fact

-Because of dwarf planet Pluto’s elliptical orbit, Pluto is sometimes closer to the sun (and
us) than Neptune is.

Did You Know?

Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across
the planet at speeds of more than 2,000 km/h (1,200 mph)—close to the top speed of a U.S. Navy
F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. Earth's most powerful winds hit only about 400 km/h (250 mph).

Pop Culture

Even though Neptune is the farthest planet from our Sun, it's a frequent stop in pop culture and
fiction. The planet served as the backdrop for the 1997 science fiction horror film Event
Horizon, while in the cartoon series Futurama, the character Robot Santa Claus has his home
base on Neptune's north pole. Dr. Who fans will remember that an episode entitled "Sleep No
More" is set on a space station orbiting Neptune. And in the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot episode,
"Broken Bow," viewers learn that at warp 4.5 speed, it is possible to fly to Neptune and back to
Earth in six minutes

Kid-Friendly Neptune

Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more
than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth is.

Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, and methane
over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane.
The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus.

Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see.

Visit NASA Space Place for more kid-friendly facts.