Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune Quiz

Answer: Fourth Largest

It is interesting to note that although it is the fourth largest in terms of diameter, it holds a higher density, and more mass than its often-called twin, Uranus.

Answer: About 1.17 times greater than Earth

Assuming you could stand on the surface of Neptune, you would be able to walk, feeling only slightly encumbered by the additional 17% gravitational pull.

Answer: Mathematicians Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams

Galileo is thought to have first located Neptune, but, thinking it was a star, he is not credited with discovery. Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams both made independent mathematical calculations, predicting the location of an 8th planet, often referred to as PLANET X.

In 1846 Johann Gottfried Galle followed those predictions and located Neptune. Scholars and experts have concluded that because of those predictions, Verrier and Adams are the correct co-discoverers and therefore are given credit.

Answer: 2100 to 2400km/hr

Since there had only ever been one visit of any kind from Earth to Neptune by 2015, experts have had to rely on the data from that single visit, and their own observations via the most powerful telescopes available. Different calculations all place the winds of Neptune around 2100 to 2400km/hr. Try flying your Cessna through that!

Answer: Blue

Depending on when you stare at Neptune, it may be described as azure blue, light-blue, or bright blue. Of course, you are viewing the planet through a telescope or binoculars on the Earth's surface, which means you must also penetrate our atmosphere.

The gases in the atmosphere create light-spectrum filters, so the color you see is not the true color of the object. Photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which has the benefit of not being additionally filtered by Earth's atmosphere, reveals Neptune to appear as blue-green.

Answer: Five

The five rings named by the end of 2015 are so named for people who have made significant discoveries about Neptune. They are named Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams. One of those names you may recognize...

Francois Arago was a 19th Century French Astronomer, whose last name graces the 135 Bronze disks implanted in the ground through Paris, following the Rose Line, and highlighted in book and movie The Da Vinci Code. He was well known for his work with optics and theories of light, and work on the longitudinal lines and global calculations.

There is a sixth ring, very faint, and which has not been named at the time of writing. The orbit of Galatea, a moon of Neptune, is believed to have created it.

Answer: 14

Fourteen moons of Neptune have been discovered by December 2015. Its largest is Triton, named after King Triton, often thought of as the alter ego of Neptune, or in other myths as the Son of Neptune. It was discovered October 10, 1846, only a few weeks following the discovery of the planet. The moon orbiting farthest from Neptune is called Neso, and takes roughly 26 years to traverse around the planet.

Since Neptune is the Roman God of the Sea, so far, all of the moons discovered have been named after lesser water deities under both the Roman and Greek pantheons.

Answer: Retrograde Orbit. It revolves around Neptune against Neptune's other moons

Because of the retrograde orbit, and composition, Triton is believed to be a captured satellite from the Kuiper Belt.

The only bodies in the solar system described as gas giants are the four planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Also, I guess you could refer to the Sun as a gas giant, because it is a great big ball of burning hydrogen gas.

Triton has a diameter of about 2705.2km making it the largest moon in orbit of Neptune. By 2015, the smallest identified moon of Neptune is S/2004N1. Its diameter is estimated between 16km and 20km.

The largest known moon in the solar system is Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter.

The orbit is Triton is slowly decaying. In the next couple billion or so years Neptune's gravity will tear Triton apart. I hope to be around to see it!

Answer: About 164-165 years

By comparison, Pluto (no longer considered a planet, alas) has a journey around the Sun of 248 years. While Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, takes a mere 88 days. The Earth takes...well...a year!

Answer: Voyager 2

On its flyby of Neptune, Voyager 2 discovered what is known as the "GREAT DARK SPOT," which has since disappeared. As opposed to Jupiter's "GREAT RED SPOT," which is a long-enduring massive storm, it is believed Neptune's "GREAT DARK SPOT" was actually a hole in the visible cloud cover.

It is strange, but the Voyager Project, which produced Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, actually launched Voyager 2 before Voyager 1. However, because Voyager 1 had a shorter and faster trajectory, on August 25, 2012 it became the first human-made object to officially leave Interstellar Space.