Neptune: The Final Planet: Neptune, The Final Planet

Neptune; The Final Planet

Eighth and last planet from the Sun; Neptune was discovered in a joint British-French-German effort with Johann Gottfried Galle, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams in 1846. Neptune was officially named after the Roman god of the sea due to its blue coloration not long after the original name Le Verrier; suggested by Galle, was declined by the international astronomical community. This interesting ice giant has had some major scientific theories, findings, and accomplishments since its discovery over a century ago which will be further discussed in this report.

To begin, Neptune is one of the four Jovian planets; also known as an outer planet. Jovian planets are usually described as a Jupiter like planet

Close to its moon Triton, Neptune’s has an approximate surface temperature of -210° C and although it has a considerable distance and low power input from the Sun, Neptune has an incredibly active climate. On Neptune, winds are recorded to reach up to 1,500 miles an hour, three times stronger than Jupiter’s and nine times stronger than Earth’s currently making it the fastest terrestrial winds found in our solar system. To complement this, Neptune has two particularly intense storms ordinarily noted as the Great Dark Spot and the Small Dark Spot. The Great Dark Spot was said to be approximately the same size as Earth while the Small Dark Spot (also known as the Dark Spot 2 and the Wizards Eye) was roughly known to be the size of Earth’s moon. These Dark Spots on Neptune are quite similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and usually compared to one another. Contradictory to that though Neptune’s storms are known to be much shorter lived in comparison. Neptune’s largest storm was recorded to have lasted up to five years in comparison to the Great Red Spot which has thrived for centuries. Other than these Dark Spots, Neptune is also compared to the Jovian planet Uranus. Much like Uranus, Neptune’s highly known for its blue coloration, this is explained due to their atmospheric methane; this absorbs light possessing a wavelength analogous to red. Different to Uranus though, Neptune has a much richer blue colour due to another atmospheric component that is currently unknown as of right now that is not in Uranus’. Most of Neptune’s upper atmosphere though includes hydrogen and helium like most other outer planets. Neptune is also akin to Uranus due to their interiors both having two layers: the core and mantle. The mantle is described as an immensely scorching thick liquid made of water, methane, and ammonia. This mantle is generally betwixt ten to fifteen times the mass of Earth. The core, on