One Last Planet of Epicness
Hello, this is Jack, and today I'm going to talk about the eighth planet from the sun, otherwise known as Neptune! Sadly, this is the last planet we're going to study. Not because we don't like planets or that we're sick of them, but because there are no more planets in our solar system. Planets, I'm going to miss you.
Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our solar system. Here's a picture:
Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our solar system. Here's a picture:
Really epic, huh?
Side note: Have your parents ever told you that Pluto is the last planet in our solar system? Well, like in everything else, they're wrong. Pluto used to be classified as a planet, but that was just a big scientific screw-up. So, Neptune is our final stop in this amazing solar system.
As you know from listening to me drone on about other planets, our celestial relatives are named after Roman gods. The planet Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea. Notice how the planet looks blue, like water? That's why. Here's a statue of the Roman god:
Well, that's interesting, but it doesn't answer the question we're all just dying to know: Who discovered the planet Neptune? That accolade officially belongs to a guy named Johann Galle, who discovered the planet in 1846. Here he is, in all his glory:
He had a little help, though. Two men, John Couch Adams and Urbain le Verrier, had predicted that there was something hanging around out there near Uranus.
John Couch Adams was a math whiz who noticed something was off with Uranus's orbit. He realized that something must have been pulling at the orbit. His calculations showed that it could be a planet. Here's the guy's picture:
I never said astronomers weren't creepy looking.
Meanwhile, another astronomer noticed this very same thing. He was working on his own calculations to try to solve the mystery. He was a Frenchman named Urbain le Verrier. Here's his picture:
Slightly less creepy.
Johann Galle used the calculations of those two creepy geniuses to pinpoint Neptune's exact location.
This blog may be boring enough already, but I'm not done! It's time for Phase Two of my Epic Neptune Blog! That's right! I am going to COMPARE and CONTRAST Neptune to the other gas giants! Hold all applause!
Here we go.
All gas giants:
(1) Have no solid surface,
(2) have small, rocky cores, and
(3) are all totally FREEZING!
Neptune:
(1) Is smaller than the other gas giants,
(2) has very faint rings thought to be made up of ice and dust particles left over from meteorite collisions, and
(3) is farther away from the sun.
Neptune can have some extremely strong winds. In 1989, scientists discovered a large, oval shaped dark storm on Neptune. They wanted to name it, and all they could come up with was the "Great Dark Spot." This storm was large enough to contain the entire Earth and spun in a counter-clockwise direction. It should have been called the "Windy Dark Spot," though, because the winds were soaring at about 750 mph, or about Mach 2. It appears that this storm is over, though, because scientists can't find it any more. Here's a picture:
That great dark spot in the center is the "Great Dark Spot."
That same year, there was also another, smaller storm discovered that they named, um, the "Small Dark Spot." This one has about the same windspeeds, but is smaller. Here's a picture:
Well, I guess 1989 was the year for the discovery of storms on Neptune because there's one more storm to go. It's a small storm, or cloud pattern, that moves very fast around the planet. Scientists really put their heads together this time, and named the storm "Scooter."
This is the same picture as above, but see the white mark right below the "Great Dark Spot"? That's Scooter.
Neptune, sadly, doesn't have any snow days. Or rain days or sun days, in fact. It can't, because there's no oxygen in the atmosphere and water is made up of both hydrogen and oxygen. That's why some geeks call water H2O. But if you wanted a frozen methane day, than you should head to Neptune. Every day's a frozen methane day there.
I still need to tell you about Neptune's moons. Although it feels like it's been many moons since I started this blog, that's beside the point. Neptune has 13 confirmed moons and one more awaiting official confirmation. The fourteenth moon, if it really is a moon, was only just discovered.
One official moon, though, is epic because it houses "geysers," or "ice volcanoes." The moon is named Triton, and it has "geysers" that spew out a combination of liquid nitrogen, methane, and dust. This stuff instantly freezes and then snows back down to the surface. Here's a picture of Triton:
Here are some interesting facts about Neptune, "interesting" being a relative term. Actually, this whole blog includes interesting facts about Neptune, but here are a few more:
(1) Neptune has only a 16-hour day. That's how long one rotation takes.
(2) It takes 60,190 Earth days for Neptune to make a complete orbit around the sun. For you math-challenged people, that's 165 Earth years.
(3) Neptune has six rings.
(4) Neptune cannot support life as we know it. (Have you ever wondered what life as we don't know it means?)
(5) Galle wanted to name the planet after Le Verrier, but scientists don't like change. He had to keep with the Roman god theme.
Bye, bye planets. It was great getting to know you.
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He had a little help, though. Two men, John Couch Adams and Urbain le Verrier, had predicted that there was something hanging around out there near Uranus.
John Couch Adams was a math whiz who noticed something was off with Uranus's orbit. He realized that something must have been pulling at the orbit. His calculations showed that it could be a planet. Here's the guy's picture:
I never said astronomers weren't creepy looking.
Meanwhile, another astronomer noticed this very same thing. He was working on his own calculations to try to solve the mystery. He was a Frenchman named Urbain le Verrier. Here's his picture:
Johann Galle used the calculations of those two creepy geniuses to pinpoint Neptune's exact location.
This blog may be boring enough already, but I'm not done! It's time for Phase Two of my Epic Neptune Blog! That's right! I am going to COMPARE and CONTRAST Neptune to the other gas giants! Hold all applause!
Here we go.
All gas giants:
(1) Have no solid surface,
(2) have small, rocky cores, and
(3) are all totally FREEZING!
Neptune:
(1) Is smaller than the other gas giants,
(2) has very faint rings thought to be made up of ice and dust particles left over from meteorite collisions, and
(3) is farther away from the sun.
Neptune can have some extremely strong winds. In 1989, scientists discovered a large, oval shaped dark storm on Neptune. They wanted to name it, and all they could come up with was the "Great Dark Spot." This storm was large enough to contain the entire Earth and spun in a counter-clockwise direction. It should have been called the "Windy Dark Spot," though, because the winds were soaring at about 750 mph, or about Mach 2. It appears that this storm is over, though, because scientists can't find it any more. Here's a picture:
That great dark spot in the center is the "Great Dark Spot."
That same year, there was also another, smaller storm discovered that they named, um, the "Small Dark Spot." This one has about the same windspeeds, but is smaller. Here's a picture:
Well, I guess 1989 was the year for the discovery of storms on Neptune because there's one more storm to go. It's a small storm, or cloud pattern, that moves very fast around the planet. Scientists really put their heads together this time, and named the storm "Scooter."
This is the same picture as above, but see the white mark right below the "Great Dark Spot"? That's Scooter.
Neptune, sadly, doesn't have any snow days. Or rain days or sun days, in fact. It can't, because there's no oxygen in the atmosphere and water is made up of both hydrogen and oxygen. That's why some geeks call water H2O. But if you wanted a frozen methane day, than you should head to Neptune. Every day's a frozen methane day there.
I still need to tell you about Neptune's moons. Although it feels like it's been many moons since I started this blog, that's beside the point. Neptune has 13 confirmed moons and one more awaiting official confirmation. The fourteenth moon, if it really is a moon, was only just discovered.
One official moon, though, is epic because it houses "geysers," or "ice volcanoes." The moon is named Triton, and it has "geysers" that spew out a combination of liquid nitrogen, methane, and dust. This stuff instantly freezes and then snows back down to the surface. Here's a picture of Triton:
Here are some interesting facts about Neptune, "interesting" being a relative term. Actually, this whole blog includes interesting facts about Neptune, but here are a few more:
(1) Neptune has only a 16-hour day. That's how long one rotation takes.
(2) It takes 60,190 Earth days for Neptune to make a complete orbit around the sun. For you math-challenged people, that's 165 Earth years.
(3) Neptune has six rings.
(4) Neptune cannot support life as we know it. (Have you ever wondered what life as we don't know it means?)
(5) Galle wanted to name the planet after Le Verrier, but scientists don't like change. He had to keep with the Roman god theme.
Bye, bye planets. It was great getting to know you.
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