Neptune
Diameter: 30,777 miles
Mass: 17.2 Earth mass
Average Temperature: -330 degrees Fahrenheit
Distance from Earth: 2.79 billion miles
Distance from Sun: 2.8 billion miles
Length of Day (Rotation Period): 16 hours
Length of Year (Orbital Period): 164 years
Magnitude: 7.9
Angular Size: 2.3 seconds of arc
Number of Known Moons: 11 (3 discovered in January 2003)
Last Visited by: Voyager II, 1989
Fast Facts
- First planet found by mathematical calculation
- Blue-green color is due to methane in the planet's atmosphere
- Neptune's moon Triton orbits the planet "backwards"
- Despite the icy cold, Triton has nitrogen geysers on its surface
Here is the Voyager II photo of those nitrogen geysers on Neptune's moon Triton.The dark elongated smudges are the geysers.
Click the Solarviews link for more information on the enigmatic moon Triton.
