1. Physical Characteristics of the Planet Neptune by: Jonathon Carten

2. Location in Solar System At the present time, Neptune is the farthest from the sun due to the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet. It is located approximately 4.54 billion kilometers from the sun and approximately 4.3 billion kilometers from Earth.

3. Atmosphere The atmosphere of Neptune is comprised of the following gases: Hydrogen (H 2 ) Helium (He) Methane (CH 4 ) Hydrogen Deuteride (HD) Ethane (C 2 H 6 ) o Ices o Ammonia (NH 3 ) o Water (H 2 O) o Ammonium Hydrosulfide (NH 4 SH) o Methane

4. Diameter The diameter of Neptune is approximately 49,493 km. This is what makes the mass what it is, 1.024x10 24 kg. This is around 17.2 times that of Earth’s mass.

5. Neptune’s Orbit

6. Orbit Continued On the previous slide the red represents Neptune and the center is the sun. The blue object is Uranus. Orbital time is approximately 165 Earth years around the sun. Orbital time on its axis is approximately 17.24 hours. The semimajor axis orbital is approximately 30.07 AU.

7. Weather The surface temperature on Neptune can reach 72K (- 200 degrees celsius). In 1989, Voyager 2 found the Great Dark Spot on the planet. Five years later the Hubble Space Telescope didn’t find the spot, but instead found a similar one in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet. Has got internal heat. Neptune radiates about 2.61 times the amount of heat it takes in from the sun.

8. Great Dark Spot

9. Rings Neptune has got faint rings surrounding the planet. Rings may consist of ice particles coated with silicates or carbon-based material. Rings first discovered in 1968 by Edward Guinan. Studies in 2005 showed that Neptune’s rings were more unstable than originally thought.

10. Rings

11. Internal Structure Has 4 main components. Upper atmosphere Atmosphere consisting of hydrogen, helium and methane. Mantle consisting of water, ammonia, and methane ices Core consisting of rocks.

12. Internal Structure

13. Works Cited For works cited, please see the works cited on the website. www.physics121neptune.wikispaces.com