Neptune

Neptune

It's Big, Blue and Amazing

by Katelynn

     The big, blue Neptune! It is the 8th planet form the sun and the second coldest planet in the solar system. It is one of the most fascinating planets in the whole universe, unfortunately, we do not know much about it because it is so far away.

      Neptune is about 30 times farther from the sun than Earth, and is sometimes the farthest planet in our solar system. Part of the year Neptune's orbit is outside of Pluto's. Thus making Neptune the farthest planet from the sun. This happens because Pluto has a  very eccentric (non-circular) orbit. Twenty years out of every two hundred forty-eight Earth years Neptune is outside of Pluto's orbit.

     Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our solar system after Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Neptune is about 49 528 km in diameter. This is about 3.88 times the diameter of Earth. If Neptune was hollowed out it could hold 60 earths inside it.

     One year on Neptune takes 164.8 Earth years. It takes almost 165 of our years for Neptune to orbit the sun once. Each day on Neptune takes 19.1 Earth hours. The gravitational pull on Neptune is about 1.2 times that of Earth's. A 100 pound person would weigh 119 pounds on Neptune. Neptune is a frigid planet with a haze atmosphere and very strong winds.

     Neptune has eight known moons, but only four orbit. Triton is the largest of Neptune's moons. Triton is the only large satellite in the solar system to circle a planet in a retrograde direction, which is opposite to the direction that Neptune rotates.

      Neptune is huge, blue and amazing. There is no other planet that can compare.