1. EVERYTHING YOU DIDN‘T NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT NEPTUNE KATIE HUGHES

2. DISCOVERY IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I SWEAR!

3. SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT WITH THIS PICTURE 1781, Uranus was discovered It did not follow the path that was predicted by Newton’s and Kepler’s Laws Either the laws were wrong OR There was another body there

4. EUROPEANS BECOME PSYCHIC John Adams Urbain Le Verrier Adams and Le Verrier predicted the same location for the mystery planet, independently English Mathematician French Astronomer

5. JOHANN GALLE In 1846, Galle located Neptune within a degree of where it had to be in order to have an observed influence on Uranus He looks like George W Bush…just saying…

6. THE PLANET IT’S NOT A ROMAN GOD

7. BACK TO THE BASICS: Smallest of the four gas giants 3.88 times Earth’s diameter 17.1 times Earth’s mass Density of 1640 kg/m^3 Coldest of the four gas giants Takes 164.8 Earth years to orbit the sun 30 time farther from the sun than the Earth Cloud features can easily be seen Still effected by the sun’s heat and has seasons

8. FIRST SIGHTS: VOYAGER 2 August 1989, it captured a detailed close up picture and a wealth of data on Neptune

9. THE ORBIT Aphelion: 2.88 billion miles Perihelion: 2.76 billion miles Orbit is elliptical but less so than others There is no marked difference between the aphelion and the perihelion Only Venus has a more circular orbit

10. THE ORBIT 16.11 hours for one rotation The rotation axis is tilted by 28.3 degrees This creates an equatorial bulge

11. THE LAYERS (1) Atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, and methane gases (2) Layer of water, methane, and ammonia ices (3) Rocky core surrounded by ammonia- and methane-laden water Note: there is not a solid surface 1 2 3

12. WATER MAKES MAGNATES The magnetic field has an axis tilt of 46.8 degrees The axis does not go through the center of the planet 40% of Earth’s magnetic field The magnetic field is believed to originate from the second layer How? The ammonia dissolves into the water and lose electrons The ions move with the rotating planet Creates a dynamo effect Creates a magnetic field

13. THE ATMOSPHERE The atmosphere is the visible surface 79% hydrogen 18% Helium 3% Methane and trace gases The methane give the planet it’s blue color Absorbs red and reflects blue

14. THE ATMOSPHERE Colossal storms and harsh winds Winds are worse around the equatorial region Winds blow at about 1340 mph Clouds are made out of methane ice crystals Cloud covers formed when the heated atmosphere rises then condenses

15. THE SEASONS Ground-based telescopes and Hubble show that the southern hemisphere has grown brighter since 1980 Observed increase in the amount, width and brightness of banded cloud features 2003: Hubble sees seasonal changed near the poles 40 years of spring will lead back into summer The sun is not enough to drive the weather so the atmosphere may be warmed by an internal heat source Cloud top temperature: -320 F

16. THE GREAT DARK SPOT Half as large as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Same latitude and proportion as Great Red Spot It is about the same length as the Earth In 1994, it disappeared and reappeared in opposite hemisphere in April 1995 Basically it likes to play hide n’ seek Scooter

17. THE RING SYSTEM YOU ALMOST CAN’T SEE THEM

18. FIRST FINDINGS First indication that there was rings was in 1980s Stars seemed to blink near the planet’s disk Voyager 2 discovered that the outer ring system was so thin that I couldn’t dim starlight

19. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Rings retain methane ice It is believed that eons of radiation damage has converted the methane ice into darkish carbon compounds This accounts for the low reflectivity of the rings

20. THE SYSTEM ITSELF Three dense regions that dim light There are six regions 5 regions are complete One remains unnamed If the material came together into a ball, it would only be a few miles wide The material is believed to come from near by moons

21. THE MOONS NOTE: WE WERE TOO LAZY TO ACTUALLY NAME ALL OF THEM WHEN WE FOUND THEM

22. JUST A HEADS UP There are couple of moons that will NOT be discussed Naiad (September 1989) Thalassa (September 1989) Despina (July 1989) Psamathe (2003) Neso (August 14, 2002) Laomedeia (August 13, 2002) Sao (August 14, 2002) S/2004 N1

23. FUN FACTS 14 known moons 12 have irregular shapes and irregular orbits Suggests that Neptune captured them 4 of the 14 are within the ring system 6 of the inner moons were discovered using Voyager 2’s data

24. A FORMER SEA GOD Proteus was discovered in June 16, 1989 by Stephen P. Synnott Almost equatorial orbit Extensive cratering First of the inner moons to be discovered Reflects six percent of the sunlight that hits it

25. THE LOVER Larissa was discovered in May 24, 1981 by David J. Tholen Larissa was originally thought to be a ring system Voyager 2 showed that it was just a irregular shaped moon 134 miles long

26. THE SEA NYMPH Nereid was found on May 1, 1949 by Gerard Kuiper while he was at the McDonald Observatory Highly eccentric and inclined orbit 5.9 million miles at its farthest 507,500 miles at its closest

27. YET ANOTHER SEA NYMPH Galatea was discovered July 1989 by Stephen P. Synnott Galatea prevents the material in the Adams ring from spreading uniformly

28. THIS IS WHEN WE GET LAZY S/2002 N1 was discovered on January 13, 2003 Found by a team of astronomers trying to find out more about Neptune’s moons Has a highly inclined and elliptical orbit Now called Halimede PICTURE NOT FOUND

29. SON OF THE SEA GOD (NOT REALLY) Triton was discovered in 1846 Its nearly spherical and has a nearly circular, retrograde orbit It is 1700 mi in diameter Speculation: Triton was captured 3 or 4 billion years ago by Neptune’s gravity Triton is the only moon of notable size Most likely had an elliptical orbit, but then the tides caused the orbit to become circular

30. SON OF THE SEA GOD (NOT REALLY) Density: 2100 kg/m^3 Two parts rock and one part ice Rocky core, liquid mantle, and icy crust Thin nitrogen atmosphere Tidal force has caused most the surface features to smooth out The present surface is about 100 million years old

31. SON OF THE SEA GOD (NOT REALLY) Puzzling: there is a wrinkled terrain near the south polar region Speculation: lake-like features on Triton are calderas of extinct cyrovolcanos The “lava” of these volcanos would be a mixture of methane, ammonia, and water (very low melting point compared to water) Temperature: -395 F Voyager 2 captured 8 km plumes of nitrogen gas that had been warmed by radioactive decay

33. FROZEN LAKE FORMATION

34. SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO Triton makes tides on Neptune Neptune causes Triton to spiral inwards Within the next quarter billion years Triton will reach the Roche Limit Roche Limit: the distance at which a planet creates tides on its moon’s solid surface high enough to pull the moon apart The destruction of Triton will create a new ring system