NEPTUNE AND PLUTO
Neptune and Pluto were the last planets to be discovered. They lie thousands of millions kilometres away from Earth, at the edge of the Solar System. Neptune is a gas giant, very like Uranus. Pluto is a tiny ice ball, smaller than our own Moon.
Why is Neptune blue?
Neptune is a lovely blue colour, rather like Earth. This colour comes about because the atmosphere contains a gas called methane. Methane absorbs the red colours in sunlight, and makes the light coming from Neptune’s atmosphere appear blue. Dark spots that sometimes appear in Neptune’s atmosphere are violent storms.
Does Neptune have moons?
Through a telescope, we can see two moons circling around Neptune – Triton and Nereid. When Voyager 2 visited the planet, it found six more. One, Proteus, was slightly bigger than Nereid, but the others were tiny. Triton is by far the biggest moon, measuring some 2,700 kilometres across. Unusually, it circles the planet in the opposite direction from most moons.
What is Neptune like?
Neptune has a similar make-up to its twin planet, Uranus. It has an atmosphere made up mainly of hydrogen, together with some helium. Beneath this there is a huge, deep, hot ocean of water and liquid gases, including methane. In the centre, there is a core of rock, which may be about the same size of Earth.
When did Voyager 2 visit Neptune?
Neptune was the last planet Voyager2 visited on its 12 – years journey. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 passed about 5,000 kilometres above Neptune cloud tops on August 24, 1989 – close than to any other planet. By then, it was more than 4,000 million kilometres from Earth, and its radio signals too more than four hours to get back.
Who found Pluto?
United States astronomer Percival Lowell built his own observatory, and led a search for a ninth planet. An astronomer who worked there, Clyde Tombaugh, finally discovered it in 1930.
What do we know about Pluto?
We do not know much about Pluto because it is so far away. At the furthest, it travels more than 7,000 million kilometres from the Sun. Even in powerful telescope, it looks only like a faint star. So far, no space probes have visited the planet. All we know is that Pluto is a deep – frozen ball of rock and ice. It probably has a covering of ‘snow’, made up of frozen methane gas.
What is special about Charon?
Pluto’s only a moon, Charon, is a unique in the Solar System, as it is half as big across as Pluto itself. No other moon is as big compared with its planet. Also, circles Pluto in the same time it takes Pluto to spin round once. This makes Charon appear fixed in the Pluto’s sky.
What would Charon look like from Pluto?
Because it appears fixed in Pluto’s sky, Charon can only be seen from one side of the planet. From that side, Charon would appear huge, much bigger than the Moon does on Earth. This is because Charon circles very close to Pluto, only about 20,000 kilometres away. Our Moon circles 20 times further from us.
Neptune and Pluto were the last planets to be discovered. They lie thousands of millions kilometres away from Earth, at the edge of the Solar System. Neptune is a gas giant, very like Uranus. Pluto is a tiny ice ball, smaller than our own Moon.
Why is Neptune blue?
Neptune is a lovely blue colour, rather like Earth. This colour comes about because the atmosphere contains a gas called methane. Methane absorbs the red colours in sunlight, and makes the light coming from Neptune’s atmosphere appear blue. Dark spots that sometimes appear in Neptune’s atmosphere are violent storms.
Does Neptune have moons?
Through a telescope, we can see two moons circling around Neptune – Triton and Nereid. When Voyager 2 visited the planet, it found six more. One, Proteus, was slightly bigger than Nereid, but the others were tiny. Triton is by far the biggest moon, measuring some 2,700 kilometres across. Unusually, it circles the planet in the opposite direction from most moons.
What is Neptune like?
Neptune has a similar make-up to its twin planet, Uranus. It has an atmosphere made up mainly of hydrogen, together with some helium. Beneath this there is a huge, deep, hot ocean of water and liquid gases, including methane. In the centre, there is a core of rock, which may be about the same size of Earth.
When did Voyager 2 visit Neptune?
Neptune was the last planet Voyager2 visited on its 12 – years journey. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 passed about 5,000 kilometres above Neptune cloud tops on August 24, 1989 – close than to any other planet. By then, it was more than 4,000 million kilometres from Earth, and its radio signals too more than four hours to get back.
Who found Pluto?
United States astronomer Percival Lowell built his own observatory, and led a search for a ninth planet. An astronomer who worked there, Clyde Tombaugh, finally discovered it in 1930.
What do we know about Pluto?
We do not know much about Pluto because it is so far away. At the furthest, it travels more than 7,000 million kilometres from the Sun. Even in powerful telescope, it looks only like a faint star. So far, no space probes have visited the planet. All we know is that Pluto is a deep – frozen ball of rock and ice. It probably has a covering of ‘snow’, made up of frozen methane gas.
What is special about Charon?
Pluto’s only a moon, Charon, is a unique in the Solar System, as it is half as big across as Pluto itself. No other moon is as big compared with its planet. Also, circles Pluto in the same time it takes Pluto to spin round once. This makes Charon appear fixed in the Pluto’s sky.
What would Charon look like from Pluto?
Because it appears fixed in Pluto’s sky, Charon can only be seen from one side of the planet. From that side, Charon would appear huge, much bigger than the Moon does on Earth. This is because Charon circles very close to Pluto, only about 20,000 kilometres away. Our Moon circles 20 times further from us.
NEPTUNE DATA
Diameter at equator : 49,500 million km
Average distance from Sun : 4,500 million km
Minimum distance from earth : 4,300 million km
Turns on axis : 17 hours 6 minutes
Circles Sun : 165 Earth-years
Temperature at cloud tops : -210°C
Satellites : 8
PLUTO DATA
Diameter at equator : 2,250 km
Average distance from Sun : 5,900 km
Minimum distance from earth : 4,300 km
Turns on axis : 6 Earth-days 9 hours
Circles Sun : 248 Earth- years
Surface temperature : -230°C
Satellites : 1
hmm..info yg bgus:P
ReplyDeletekeep up dude.