What was planet neptune named after

One extra-ordinary thing about Neptune is that it was first discovered theoretically rather than experimentally by Urbain Le Verrier. Initially, Neptune was called Le Verrier's Planet, after the person who discovered it.

Then Urbain Le Verrier chose the name Uranus for this new planet. After long period of controversies the planet was finally named Neptune. The name comes from the Roman God of sea Neptune. The planet's name comes from its deep blue color like sea due to traces of methane found in it atmosphere. Neptune Facts for Kids Neptune is now the most distant planet sorry, Pluto and is a cold and dark world nearly 3 billion miles from the Sun. Home » Planets for Kids » Neptune.

Neptune is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System and the smallest of the gas giants. Both Neptune and Uranus are termed ice giants since they have different compositions than Saturn and Jupiter. The core of Neptune is about 1. Wind speeds on Neptune are among the fastest recorded in the Solar System. Some may reach up to 2. They are five times stronger than the strongest winds on Earth. Neptune has a total of 6 ring systems surrounding it.

Some of them contain ring arcs or clusters of dust particles. Neptune also has 14 moons. The largest moon of Neptune is Triton, and it is the seventh-largest known moon of any planet. Some believe that the moon is actually a captured dwarf planet. Neptune is the first planet to be discovered by the use of mathematical calculations and predictions. Neptune has a powerful magnetic field. Neptune formed around 4. Surface and Structure The atmosphere of Neptune is made out of hydrogen, helium, and methane.

Time on Neptune A day on Neptune is less than a day on Earth. Fun Facts Neptune was given the name of the Roman god of the sea due to its bluish-ocean like color.

Until the orbit of Pluto was understood, and its status dropped from that of a planet to a dwarf planet, Neptune was considered the second farthest planet from the Sun.

The rings are thought to be relatively young and short-lived. Neptune's ring system also has peculiar clumps of dust called arcs. The arcs are strange because the laws of motion would predict that they would spread out evenly rather than stay clumped together. Scientists now think the gravitational effects of Galatea, a moon just inward from the ring, stabilizes these arcs. Neptune took shape when the rest of the solar system formed about 4.

Like its neighbor Uranus, Neptune likely formed closer to the Sun and moved to the outer solar system about 4 billion years ago. Neptune is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system the other is Uranus. Of the giant planets, Neptune is the densest. Scientists think there might be an ocean of super hot water under Neptune's cold clouds. It does not boil away because incredibly high pressure keeps it locked inside. Neptune does not have a solid surface.

Its atmosphere made up mostly of hydrogen, helium, and methane extends to great depths, gradually merging into water and other melted ices over a heavier, solid core with about the same mass as Earth.

Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium with just a little bit of methane. Neptune's neighbor Uranus is a blue-green color due to such atmospheric methane, but Neptune is a more vivid, brighter blue, so there must be an unknown component that causes the more intense color.

Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Despite its great distance and low energy input from the Sun, Neptune's winds can be three times stronger than Jupiter's and nine times stronger than Earth's. These winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 1, miles per hour 2, kilometers per hour. Even Earth's most powerful winds hit only about miles per hour kilometers per hour. In a large, oval-shaped storm in Neptune's southern hemisphere dubbed the "Great Dark Spot" was large enough to contain the entire Earth.

That storm has since disappeared, but new ones have appeared on different parts of the planet. The main axis of Neptune's magnetic field is tipped over by about 47 degrees compared with the planet's rotation axis.

German astronomer Johann Galle then relied on subsequent calculations to help spot Neptune via telescope. Previously, astronomer Galileo Galilei sketched the planet, but he mistook it for a star due to its slow motion. In accordance with all the other planets seen in the sky, this new world was given a name from Greek and Roman mythology — Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.

Only one mission has flown by Neptune — Voyager 2 in — meaning that astronomers have done most studies using ground-based telescopes. Today, there are still many mysteries about the cool, blue planet, such as why its winds are so speedy and why its magnetic field is offset. While Neptune is of interest because it is in our own solar system, astronomers are also interested in learning more about the planet to assist with exoplanet studies.

Specifically, some astronomers are interested in learning about the habitability of worlds that are somewhat bigger than Earth. Those that are closer to Earth's size are called "super-Earths", while those that are closer to Neptune's size are "mini-Neptunes. Like Earth, Neptune has a rocky core, but it has a much thicker atmosphere that prohibits the existence of life as we know it. Astronomers are still trying to figure out at what point a planet is so large that it may pick up a lot of gas in the area, making it difficult or impossible for life to exist.

Neptune's cloud cover has an especially vivid blue tint that is partly due to an as-yet-unidentified compound and the result of the absorption of red light by methane in the planets mostly hydrogen-helium atmosphere. Photos of Neptune reveal a blue planet, and it is often dubbed an ice giant, since it possesses a thick, slushy fluid mix of water, ammonia and methane ices under its atmosphere and is roughly 17 times Earth's mass and nearly 58 times its volume, according to a NASA fact sheet.

These winds were linked with a large dark storm that Voyager 2 tracked in Neptune's southern hemisphere in