Neptune

Neptune is the eighth and last planet in our solar system from the Sun. Neptune is not clearly visible from Earth. In 1989, the planet was visited by a spacecraft. So we know that Neptune has five rings. The planet also has 14 moons. Triton is the largest. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea.

Neptune is very similar to Uranus, they are even said to be "brothers". Like Uranus, Neptune is also blue. The diameter of Neptune is 49,244 km, slightly smaller than that of Uranus. Neptune has an atmosphere very similar to that of Uranus.

Neptune takes about 166 years to make a circle around the sun. Neptune is 57 times the size of Earth. A day only lasts sixteen hours and seven minutes. The average distance to the sun is about more than 4 billion kilometres.

Neptune was discovered in 1846 by the German Johann Halle. Before that, French Urbain Le Verrier and British John Couch Adams had already calculated that the planet had to exist. They saw that the orbit of Uranus was influenced by an unknown planet.