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Neptune
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It is thought that one of Neptune's moons, Triton, was captured by the planet's gravity and was not formed naturally near to Neptune like the other moons.
In Roman mythology Neptune was the god of the sea. The Greek god of the sea was Poseidon. Have you seen the film the 'Poseidon Adventure'?
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8th nearest planet to the Sun
4th largest planet
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Diameter
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Mass
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Distance from Sun
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Orbital time
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Rotational period
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Major moons
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49,532 km
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1.02 x 1026 kg
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4,504.3 million km
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165 Earth years
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0.67 Earth days
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8
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How does that compare with the Earth?
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Diameter |
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3.88 the diameter of the Earth
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Mass |
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17 the mass of the Earth
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Distance from Sun |
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30.1 the distance of the Earth from the Sun
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Orbit time |
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Neptune takes 164.8 Earth years to orbit the Sun |
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The discovery of Neptune was not made by chance. From observations of Uranus, two mathematicians, Adams and Leverrier, worked out that another planet must exist because something was affecting the orbit of Uranus. When, in 1846, the astronomer Galle looked in the region of the sky suggested by the mathematicians, he discovered the new planet. It was named after Neptune, the Roman God of the Sea, because of its greenish-blue colour. |
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 Neptune is the windiest planet in the solar system. It has a 'Great Dark Spot' - an enormous storm moving around its surface, similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Between 1979 and 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew close by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and took this picture as it passed.
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