when it comes to exploring the planets in our solar system there are two
planets that are noticeably overlooked Uranus and more specifically Neptune
the large ice giant and eighth planet from the sun Neptune seems to be left out of the
majority of missions nevertheless voyager 2 and the Hubble space telescope have captured some
fascinating images of this cold and mysterious world welcome to Factnomenal and today we will
be taking a closer look at the intriguing blue planet and everything we know about it so far
one simply cannot talk about Neptune without making mention of its famous large moon triton
some would even argue that the satellite is more famous and garners more attention than
even the planet itself being the only moon in the entire solar system to orbit opposite
of its planet it's not surprising therefore that when voyager 2 set out on its mission it actually
gathered some stunning and breathtaking photos of not only Neptune but of its mighty satellite in
one such image the voyager captured the crescent of both the blue planet and triton according to
nasa the spacecraft was plunging southward at an angle of 48 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic
when the image was taken another image is the global color mosaic of triton showing off the moon
in all its wondrous mystique it is thought to have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere and is perhaps the only
satellite in the solar system that has a nitrogen ice surface the blue-green band across triton
is thought to be nitrogen frost while the more pink-colored band is believed to be methane ice
similar to the great red spot that has been observed on Jupiter Voyager 2 took a photo of
what seems to be a gigantic anti-cyclonic storm in the planet's southern atmosphere
that scientists have simply dubbed as a great dark spot Neptune does boast of some
of the strangest weather conditions among its neighboring planets holding the record
for the fastest winds with speeds cutting through the atmosphere at ,100 miles per hour
that's one and a half times the speed of sound let that sink in the dark spot on Neptune is said to
stretch out about 4,600 miles across the planet's surface it also has a little companion storm dark
spot junior which scientists say could just be a piece of the original storm that has broken up
originally the voyager spotted the large storm in the smaller fast-moving storm they called scooter
but some four years later astronomers searched for the same storm through the Hubble telescope
and it appeared to completely vanish scientists are still unsure of how and why it disappeared
Meet Hippocamp the blue planet's smallest moon discovered yet nasa's hubble space telescope was
able to capture an image of neptune's smallest and perhaps newest moon yet
Hippocamp named after the seahorses that pulled Neptune's chariot according to greek mythology
is only 21 miles across and hovers alarmingly close to one of Neptune's largest moons proteus
to be precise the two are actually only 7,450 miles apart because of
this many astronomers believe that the little satellite has actually had quite a violent past
Hippocamp may have actually been formed as a result of the debris being blasted
off from proteus after colliding with a comet had it come from anywhere else the giant moon
would have given it the boot or swallowed it up discovered in 2013 among the images taken
by the Hubble space telescope Hippocamp sure is special it is the smallest known moon of
the farthest known planet in our solar system bringing the count for Neptune's moons to 14.
Just two hours prior to its closest approach of the big blue planet voyager 2 captured the most
stunning image of Neptune Neptune's surface is not anything like our own planet earth
since it mostly consists of layers upon layers of gas it is coated in thick clouds with the
interior being made up of heavy and compressed gases think of it as a giant blue ball of gas
just suspended in the air in the image captured by the spacecraft
you can see the white strips of cloud formations which are heavily concentrated in certain areas
Neptune's cloud storm systems revolve around the planet at speeds of 700 miles per hour why some
regions seem to have more cloud clusters together than others is still a mystery to be solved
here on earth when you think of the pole regions whether north or south it probably
sends a chill down your spine just thinking of the freezing conditions well this isn't the
case on neptune in fact the south pole on the blue gas giant is actually its warmest place
but then again neptune's average temperature is about negative 328 degrees fahrenheit
or negative 200 degrees celsius so perhaps warm in this case is still actually pretty cold in the
images captured by voyager 2 it shows the high white clouds swirling around a faint vortex at
the planet's south pole the clouds seem to cast shadows on the blue atmosphere below it
if you view the infrared version of the image you can clearly see the bright spot illuminated at the
base of the planet showing just how much warmer the south pole is on neptune so just a heads up
if you're planning to float around in neptune's atmosphere consider taking a trip down south
neptune may not have an abundance of satellites like jupiter or saturn but it doesn't make its
moons any less interesting triton is by far neptune's most intriguing and famous satellite yet
nasa's voyager 2 spacecraft approached the planet's moon and was able to capture three
sequential images of erupting volcanoes on triton the images show the almost geyser-like
plume spewing up a five mile long or eight kilometer cloud of very fine dark particles
into triton's atmosphere the voyager scientists say that these eruptions could be due to the
sunlight being absorbed by the dark particles inside of triton's ice cap which warms the
nitrogen ice and causes the pressurized gas to escape through vents as of now earth triton and
jupiter's heavily cratered moon io are well known for their active volcanic activity
it looks like hurricanes are a common occurrence even on giant planets like neptune
in an image captured by voyager 2 you can see two hurricanes spinning on neptune's surface being a
gas giant neptune has no solid surface if a person were to attempt to stand on neptune well they'd
sink into the gaseous layers immediately neptune's surface is said to be composed of approximately 80
hydrogen 19 helium and the rest of it has traces of methane because that is not a solid body and
mostly just made up of layers and layers of gas its atmosphere undergoes differential rotation the
equatorial zone rotates with a period of 18 hours and in stark contrast the polar regions have a
rotation period of about 12 hours compared to any other planet in the solar system the differential
rotation is extremely pronounced thus resulting in extremely strong winds and violent storms
one of the notable discoveries and images captured by the Voyager 2 Mission was that of
the satellite narrated the satellite was actually first discovered with a ground-based telescope by
Gerard Kuiper but it was only until voyager 2 sent back images of the moon that its existence
was solidified being one of Neptune's outermost moons there is something very unique about narrate
and that is its rather eccentric orbit the satellite is actually so far from its planet
Neptune that it would take an equivalent of 360 earth days to make a single orbit
astronomers and scientists are of the opinion that perhaps the moon is actually a captured asteroid
of KBO or Kuiper Belt Object until we have another flyby mission to the planet the history
of narit's past remains a mystery and Neptune will continue to hold the moon in its orbit
on June 25th 2011 Neptune completed its orbit of the sun
and arrived at the exact same location in space where it was first discovered
165 years earlier to celebrate this occasion or Neptune's discovery anniversary nasa along with
the help of its Hubble space telescope captured breathtaking images of the blue green gas giant
the image showcases the planet in all its glory and is quite a nice way to celebrate the occasion
well one thing is for certain it's high time we take another trip to neptune to discover all that
the planet has to offer the new horizon spacecraft is currently orbiting pluto its icy moons and the
kuiper belt just beyond the edge of neptune's orbit it is neptune's time to shine and finally
get a mission of its own nasa currently has no plans of exploring the planet in the near future
except for the proposed neptune odyssey mission in 2031 but a tentative Chinese mission is said
to be in the works for 2024 if there is anything we have learned from shocking new findings on
planets like Venus which had previously been severely overlooked is that we must first get
to know our neighboring planets before we can head out deeper into space perhaps the answers we are
looking for are right here closer than we think which planet do you think nasa should explore next
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