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  1. Only showing results from www.britannica.com

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  2. Dec 14, 2024Neptune, third most massive planet of the solar system and the eighth and outermost planet from the Sun.Because of its great distance from Earth, it cannot be seen with the unaided eye.With a small telescope, it appears as a tiny, faint blue-green disk.It is designated by the symbol ♆.. Neptune is named for the Roman god of the sea, who is identified with the Greek deity Poseidon, a son of ...
  3. 1 day agoThe solar system's several billion comets are found mainly in two distinct reservoirs. The more-distant one, called the Oort cloud, is a spherical shell surrounding the solar system at a distance of approximately 50,000 astronomical units (AU)—more than 1,000 times the distance of Pluto's orbit. The other reservoir, the Kuiper belt, is a thick disk-shaped zone whose main concentration ...
  4. Astronomy - Solar System, Planets, Stars: The solar system took shape 4.57 billion years ago, when it condensed within a large cloud of gas and dust. Gravitational attraction holds the planets in their elliptical orbits around the Sun. In addition to Earth, five major planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) have been known from ancient times. Since then only two more have been ...
  5. Dec 14, 2024Neptune - Discovery, Orbit, Moons: Neptune is the only giant planet that is not visible without a telescope. Having an apparent magnitude of 7.8, it is approximately one-fifth as bright as the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye. Hence, it is fairly certain that there were no observations of Neptune prior to the use of telescopes. Galileo is credited as the first person to view the ...
  6. 2 days agosolar system to scale The eight planets of the solar system and Pluto, in a montage of images scaled to show the approximate sizes of the bodies relative to one another. Outward from the Sun, which is represented to scale by the yellow segment at the extreme left, are the four rocky terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), the four hydrogen-rich giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn ...
    Author:The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
  7. Neptune has a system of rings, made up largely of dust-size particles, and at least 13 moons; the largest is Triton, almost as big as Earth's Moon. Triton Summary Triton, largest of Neptune's moons, whose unusual orbital characteristics suggest that it formed elsewhere in the solar system and was later captured by Neptune.
  8. Dec 14, 2024Neptune - Moons, Rings, Orbit: Neptune has at least 14 moons and six known narrow rings. Each of the myriad particles that constitute the rings can be considered a tiny moon in its own orbit. The four moons nearest the planet orbit within the ring system, where at least some of them may interact gravitationally with the ring particles, keeping them from spreading out. Prior to Voyager 2's ...
  9. Dec 14, 2024Neptune - Gas Giant, Moons, Rings: Having an orbital period of 164.79 years, Neptune has circled the Sun only once since its discovery in September 1846. Consequently, astronomers expect to be making refinements in calculating its orbital size and shape well into the 21st century. Voyager 2's encounter with Neptune resulted in a small upward revision of the planet's estimated mean distance ...
  10. 4 days agoSolar system - Planets, Moons, Orbits: The eight planets can be divided into two distinct categories on the basis of their densities (mass per unit volume). The four inner, or terrestrial, planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—have rocky compositions and densities greater than 3 grams per cubic cm. (Water has a density of 1 gram per cubic cm.) In contrast, the four outer planets, also ...
  11. Dec 14, 2024Neptune - Magnetic Field, Magnetosphere, Rings: Neptune, like most of the other planets in the solar system, possesses an internally generated magnetic field, first detected in 1989 by Voyager 2. Like Earth's magnetic field, Neptune's field can be represented approximately by that of a dipole (similar to a bar magnet), but its polarity is essentially opposite to that of Earth's present ...

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