Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun, besides Pluto. It takes 164 earth years for it to orbit the sun. It is spinning the same direction as the earth except for it’s all wobbly as it goes. It is bright blue because it is made of methane. Neptune also has 2 rings made of dust particles. They are 33,000 and 39,000 miles away from Neptune. Neptune used to have a Great Dark Spot on it which was a storm as big as the whole earth but now its gone (by Nathan, age 11).
Neptune has 13 known moons, the largest of these is Triton. It is the coldest object that any spacecraft has ever visited. The average temperature on Triton is 400 degrees F below zero. It is also moving closer and closer to Neptune every day. These two facts make most astronomers think that Triton was not originally Neptune’s moon, but was probably pulled in by Neptune’s gravity. Another interesting thing about Triton is that it is full of geysers, which probably spew a mixture of chemicals instead of hot water (by Joel, age 13).
I’m adding this link to a flashback from our Hawaiian homeschool 6 years ago. In it, Titus (age 9 at the time) mentions that it rains diamonds on Neptune. When I reread this I was incredulous myself, wondering if I had let some misinformation slip into the blog. It turns out that after that particular post, more studies emerged to support this theory. You can read about it yourself in this Washington Post article .
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