Neptune
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| |
| Neptune | |
|---|---|
| Political Specifications | |
| Designation | Sol IX |
| Affiliation | unaligned |
| Location | Sol |
| Sector | Sol Sector |
| Quadrant | Alpha / Beta |
| World Status | Non-Resource |
| Orbital Characteristics | |
| Distance (AUs) | 30.11 |
| Orbit | 9 |
| Orbital Zone | Blue |
| Orbital Duration | 164.8 years (60,182 days) |
| Physical Characteristics | |
| Class | I |
| Rotation Duration | 16.1 hrs |
| Satellites | 14 |
| Atmospheric Density | Thick |
| Gravity (g) | 1.15 |
| Diameter (d) | 3.87 |
| Surface Area (a2) | 14.93 |
| Population Data | |
| Dominant Lifeform | N/A |
| System Layout: Sol: · Mercury · Venus · Earth(Luna) · Mars(Phobos, Deimos)· Main Belt(Ceres) · Jupiter(Europa) · Saturn(Titan, Enceladus) · Uranus · Neptune · Pluto |
Astronomical Data
Satellites
Natural
- Triton
- 12 lesser moons
- slight ring system
Artificial
- none
History
Galileo's drawings show that he first observed Neptune on December 28, 1612, and again on January 27, 1613; on both occasions, Galileo mistook Neptune for a fixed star when it appeared very close (in conjunction) to Jupiter in the night sky. Believing it to be a fixed star, he is not credited with its discovery. At the time of his first observation in December 1612, it was stationary in the sky because it had just turned retrograde that very day; because it was only beginning its yearly retrograde cycle, Neptune's motion was far too slight to be detected with Galileo's small telescope.
In 1821, Alexis Bouvard published astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus. Subsequent observations revealed substantial deviations from the tables, leading Bouvard to hypothesize some perturbing body. In 1843, John Couch Adams calculated the orbit of an eighth planet that would account for Uranus' motion. He sent his calculations to Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, who asked Adams for a clarification. Adams began to draft a reply but never sent it and did not aggressively pursue work on the Uranus problem.
In 1845-46, Urbain Le Verrier, independently of Adams, rapidly developed his own calculations but also experienced difficulties in encouraging any enthusiasm in his compatriots. In June, however, upon seeing Le Verrier's first published estimate of the planet's longitude and its similarity to Adams's estimate, Airy persuaded Cambridge Observatory director James Challis to search for the planet.
Challis vainly scoured the sky throughout August and September. Meantime, Le Verrier by letter urged Berlin Observatory astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle to search with the observatory's refractor. Though still a student at the Berlin Observatory, Heinrich d'Arrest suggested that a recently drawn chart of the sky, in the region of Le Verrier's predicted location, could be compared with the current sky to seek the displacement characteristic of a planet, as opposed to a fixed star. The very evening of the day of receipt of Le Verrier's letter, Neptune was discovered, September 23, 1846, within 1° of where Le Verrier had predicted it to be, and about 12° from Adams' prediction. Challis later realized that he had observed the planet twice in August, failing to identify it owing to his casual approach to the work.
Important Locations
- None