Neptune

Discovered with Math

Inside - Outside

What is known

Sidereal Year:164.79 earth years

Sidereal day: .67 earth days

Mass: 1.02E26 kgRadius: 24,622 km Gravity: 11.15 m/s2

Reflectivity

• Appears blue for the same reasons Uranus does.

• Methane atmosphere absorbs all the red wavelengths and will reflect the

• blue – green wavelengths.

• However, it is more blue than Uranus so

• there is an unknown component.

Magnetic Field

The tilted offset magnetic field was measuredby Voyager 2. This is similar to Uranus

Favored explanation is the field is formed in a conducting shell outside thecore.

Inclination

Eccentricitye = .00859

closer to 0 means morecircular orbit.

Pluto’s orbit crosses Neptune’s pathway.

Climate

• Neptune has a very active climate:Large storms whirl through its upper atmosphere, and high-speed winds track around the planet at up 600 meters per second. One of the largest storms ever seen was recorded in 1989. It was called the Great Dark Spot. It lasted about five years.

Does it rain Diamonds?

• http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/is-it-raining-diamonds-on-uranus-neptune/

Both Neptune and Uranus contain high concentrations of methane. Like graphite, it too can actually transform into various forms of complex hydrocarbons given enough heat and pressure. Professors from UC Berkeley made the discovery by firing a laser beam at insanely pressurized liquid methane, causing it to heat up to temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When this happened, diamond dust was observed. Thus leading some to theorize that tiny diamonds (created from methane) may fall like hail throughout the planets. As the diamonds scatter above, the energy released could account for the temperature discrepancy.

Rings

• Material of the rings is very clumpy.

• These clumps are fading. Speculation is

• that Neptune’s rings are transitory.

RingsThis Voyager image, FDS 11412.51, shows the three main arcs in Neptune's Adams Ring. The Liberty arc is near the lower edge of the image, followed by Equality and Fraternity above it.A fourth, fainter arc, called Courage, would be just ahead of Liberty.

Names of Rings

Sounds

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwnpXll_A_E

Moons

• 14 known moons. One is fairly recently

• discovered so it does not have a name

• yet.

• The largest is Triton.

Triton

• Has a retrograde orbit

• Very icy. Very

• cold.

• Eventually will

• reach the Roche

• limit and become

• a ring.

Roche Limit

• Minimum distance an orbiting body can

• exist. Closer in and the body is ripped to pieces by tidal forces on it.

• This is Triton’s destiny because it’s orbit is getting smaller. It will be billions of years before it happens.

How do they get those pictures?

• http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/video-view.cfm?Vid_ID=4363

• This will be a short answer to how

• do they get a montage?