Neptune facts for kids

Meet Neptune

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, the farthest of all. It is about four times as wide as Earth. Like Uranus, it is an ice giant. Uranus is slightly wider than Neptune, but Neptune is heavier.

Methane gas in its air helps make it look blue.

The windiest planet

Neptune is the windiest planet in our Solar System. Winds on Neptune can blow at more than 2,000 kilometres an hour.

Found with maths

Uranus was being tugged off course, so astronomers worked out where another planet had to be. Urbain Le Verrier worked out where it should be, and in 1846 Johann Galle spotted it.

Days and years

A day on Neptune lasts about 16 hours. Neptune is so far away that one trip round the Sun takes about 165 Earth years. Neptune is so far out that sunlight takes about four hours to reach it.

Moons and rings

Neptune has 16 known moons. The biggest, Triton, travels round Neptune the opposite way to the way the planet spins. It is the only large moon in the Solar System that does this.

Neptune has at least five main rings. In 1989 the spacecraft Voyager 2 became the first to fly past it.

Neptune in a nutshell

• Place from the Sun: eighth, the farthest
• Kind of planet: an ice giant
• Size: about four times as wide as Earth
• A day: about 16 hours
• A year: about 165 Earth years
• Moons: 16 known
• Biggest moon: Triton

Quick quiz: Neptune

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