GENERAL DESCRIPTION
| Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system. It is named for the Roman god of the sea. Neptune is a blue-green planet very similar to Uranus in terms of its size and the chemical composition of its atmosphere. Neptune is situated further from the sun than Uranus, experiences extremely cold down to -214 ¼C. Neptune completes one rotation every 16 hours and 7 minutes. Triton and Nereid are two of Neptune's satellites. The total number of moons that have been discovered since 1989 is six altogether. Neptune's largest moon is Triton. It is unique among all the known moons in the Solar System as Triton revolves around its mother planet in the direction opposite to Neptune's rotation. It's orbit is so close to Neptune, and is gradually getting so much closer, that one day Neptune's gravity might pull it apart and scatter it into a Saturn-like ring. |