Planet 8 of 8
Neptune
The windswept blue
The farthest planet from the Sun, Neptune was found by mathematics before anyone saw it, and hosts the fastest winds ever measured in the Solar System.
Quick facts
- Type
- Ice giant
- Distance from Sun
- 30.05 AU
- Diameter
- 49,244 km
- Mass
- 17.1 × Earth
- Surface gravity
- 11.15 m/s²
- Day length
- 16.1 hours
- Year length
- 165 Earth years
- Moons
- 16
- Average temperature
- -200 °C
- Composition
- Ices and gases over a rocky core, methane-rich atmosphere
Fun facts
- Winds reach roughly 2,000 km/h.
- It was predicted by calculation before being observed in 1846.
- Triton orbits backwards and is likely a captured Kuiper Belt object.
- One Neptune year is 165 Earth years — it completed its first orbit since discovery in 2011.