Neptune | Below The Clouds of an Ice Giant Planet
The solar systems most distant planet, Neptune, a colossal world that still baffles scientists even today. Only one robotic spacecraft has ever visited the ice giant, briefly allowing us to study its complex, dramatic atmosphere like never before.
2021-07-28 19:00:00 - V101 Science
In its entire history, it has so far been visited by only one spacecraft. This honor fell to the Voyager 2, which approached the eighth planet in August 1989. So, Neptune is an extremely difficult target to study.
Neptune is an ice giant
The diameter of Neptune is 49 thousand kilometers; its mass is 17 times the mass of the Earth. The structure of the planet resembles Uranus.
While the atmosphere of Neptune consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, its mantle is dominated by water, methane and ammonia. And there is a stone-ice core in its center. Astronomers distinguish such objects as a separate category of ice giants.
Neptune has rings
Neptune has its own ring system, which consists of five main rings. They are much smaller and dimmer than Saturn’s famous rings and are mostly composed of particles, most likely covered with organic material, which gives them a reddish tinge.
Diamonds are raining on Neptune
Neptune once had an analogue of the Great Red Spot
However, unlike its Jupiter counterpart, the Great Dark Spot was much less durable. When trying to shoot it by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994 scientists discovered that it had completely disappeared. At the same time, astronomers have repeatedly recorded new major storms on Neptune.
Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system
Neptune is home to the fastest winds in the solar system. Their maximum speed reaches 2400 km/h. That’s about twice the speed of sound on Earth.
Most likely, such strong winds are associated with heat coming from the bowels of the planet. The fact is that Neptune emits 2.61 times more energy than it receives from the Sun.
The exact nature of the planet’s internal heat source is still a matter of debate among astronomers.
Unlike other giant planets, each of which has a family of several massive moons, Neptune has only one truly large satellite, Triton. At the same time, Triton moves in a retrograde orbit around the planet. This suggests that in the distant past it was captured by the gravity of Neptune and originally formed in a completely different region of the solar system.
Astronomers believe that the capturing of Triton has led to the complete destabilization of the original satellite family of the planet. This led to a series of grandiose collisions, during which Neptune’s “native” satellites were destroyed. Subsequently, several small satellites gathered from their wreckage, which still revolve around the planet.
In the future, Neptune is going to destroy Triton
However, although Triton has survived all the great moons of Neptune, in the future it will also face a gloomy fate.
Observations show that it is gradually approaching the planet. Eventually, the satellite will cross the Roche limit. After that, the gravity of Neptune will tear Triton apart. The debris is going to form a giant ring around the planet, which will be more massive and larger than Saturn’s rings. In the future, the wreckage of Triton will gradually fall on Neptune.
But Neptune, still holds many mysteries, such as, what lies below its mysterious clouds and to dive even deeper, what is at its core?
Take a trip inside of the solar systems most distant planet and find out what scientists think is going on down there, and trust me, it's very bizarre.