We're 30 times further from the sun than Earth so
solar energy takes more than 7 hours to reach this frosty place at minus 215
degrees C. Nevertheless this planet radiates 2.7 times more energy than it
receives!
In fact, if you're looking for signs of life, how
about the most violent winds of our solar system at up to 1500 kmh and a Great
Dark Spot (the size of Earth) that comes and goes.
How did we find out about this one? Galileo spotted this beauty through his new telescope but didn’t realize what he’d just seen.
Once Uranus was discovered accidentally in 1781, its orbital behaviour led John C. Adams and Urbain J.J. Leverrier to cleverly calculate the position of this unknown planet - found within half an hour by Berlin Observatory in 1846 – over 230 years after Galileo! This oddity whose existence Science can't explain, is so far from the sun that it has just completed only one orbit since it was first identified 167 years ago.
Once Uranus was discovered accidentally in 1781, its orbital behaviour led John C. Adams and Urbain J.J. Leverrier to cleverly calculate the position of this unknown planet - found within half an hour by Berlin Observatory in 1846 – over 230 years after Galileo! This oddity whose existence Science can't explain, is so far from the sun that it has just completed only one orbit since it was first identified 167 years ago.
We now know it has a faint 5 ring system and 11
moons including Triton, the coldest object in our solar system, spraying out
nitrogen ice crystals 10 kilometres high as it orbits this planet - in reverse!
Would you agree Neptune is unique?
By the way, if you want to check for yourself using
a high powered telescope, you’ll find Neptune in the constellation of Aquarius.
Image credit: whyfiles.org
No comments:
Post a Comment