Dark, cold, and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846. Neptune is so …

Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

We show in this white paper that, with suitable instrumentation on planetary and terrestrial spacecraft, soft X-ray emission associated with the solar wind interaction with planetary neutral atoms can map out the solar wind distribution around planets, including the …

Dec 20, 2017 · NASA has selected two finalist concepts for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-2020s: a comet sample return mission and a drone-like rotorcraft that would explore potential landing sites on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

May 16, 2024 · Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet from the Sun. It’s the fourth largest, and the first planet discovered with math.

NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

Oct 26, 2000 · What do you get if you mix together one part helium and five-and-a-half parts hydrogen, add a dash of methane, heat to 60 Kelvins (-351 degrees F) and let sit for over four billion years?

Neptune takes about 16 hours to rotate once (a Neptunian day), and about 165 Earth years to orbit the sun (a Neptunian year).

NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

Discovery Triton was discovered on Oct. 10, 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered. Overview Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. Scientists think …