Neptune

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Neptune : the planet eighth in order from the sun — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Encyclopedia

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest-known planet from the Sun. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times the mass of Earth, and slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus. Neptune is denser and physically smaller than Uranus because its greater mass causes more gravitational compression of its atmosphere. It is referred to as one of the solar system’s two ice giant planets (the other one being Uranus). Being composed primarily of gases and liquids, it has no well-defined “solid surface”. The planet orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 AU (4.5 billion km; 2.8 billion mi). It is named after the Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol ♆, representing Neptune’s trident. — Wikipedia

Neptune (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Neptune (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

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Inspiration

NASA’s Eyes is a freely available suite of computer visualization applications created by the Visualization Technology Applications and Development Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to render scientifically accurate views of the planets studied by JPL missions and the spacecraft used in that study. — Wikipedia

Neptune (NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)

Articles about Neptune (Big Think)

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Innovation

Science

ScienceAtNASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA Science (Official Website)

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)

Neptune (NASA Science)

Neptune Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Neptune, Planet of Wind and Ice (Planetary Society)

Neptune (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Neptune (Wolfram Alpha)

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Preservation

History

Neptune is not visible to the unaided eye and is the only planet in the Solar System found by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation. Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to hypothesise that its orbit was subject to gravitational perturbation by an unknown planet. After Bouvard’s death, the position of Neptune was predicted from his observations, independently, by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier. Neptune was subsequently observed with a telescope on 23 September 1846 by Johann Galle within a degree of the position predicted by Le Verrier. Its largest moon, Triton, was discovered shortly thereafter. — Wikipedia

Astronomers Discover Neptune, the Eighth Planet (John Uri, NASA Johnson Space Center)
Neptune’s Discovery (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Discovery of Neptune (Wikipedia)

Voyager Program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to fly near them while collecting data for transmission back to Earth. — Wikipedia

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website)

Voyager 1 & 2 (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, YouTube Playlist)
Voyager Mission (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Voyager Mission (NASA Science)
Voyager 2 (NASA Science)

The Voyager Spacecraft’s 40 Year Journey (The New York Times, YouTube Video)
The Story of the Voyager Expedition (The New Yorker, YouTube Video)

Voyager 2 and the Grand Tour (The History Guy, YouTube Video)

Voyager Mission (Planetary Society)
Voyager Program (Wikipedia)

Neptune: Exploration (NASA Science)

Library

DDC: 523.481 Neptune (Library Thing)
Subject: Neptune (Library Thing)

Subject: Neptune (Open Library)

LCC: QB 691 Neptune (Library of Congress)
Subject: Neptune (Library of Congress)

Subject: Neptune (WorldCat)

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Participation

Education

Neptune – Level 1 (StarChild, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)
Neptune – Level 2 (StarChild, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)

All About Neptune (Space Place, NASA)
Neptune (Cosmos4Kids)

Uranus & Neptune (Crash Course Astronomy, YouTube Video)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Organization

Saturn, Uranus & Neptune Section (British Astronomical Association)

News

Neptune (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Neptune (EurekaAlert, AAAS)
Neptune (Astronomy Magazine)
Planet Neptune (JSTOR)
Neptune (Science Daily)
Neptune (Phys.org)

Recent News from Phys.org …

Supersonic waves could explain the strange orbits...
on October 28, 2026 at 6:20 pm
Using advanced new simulations, a team of astronomers in the U.S. has developed a promising new theory for how giant, gaseous exoplanets migrate into stiflingly close orbits around their host stars. Led by J. J. Zanazzi at The Pennsylvania State University, the team showed how both massive "hot Jupiters" and smaller, Neptune-sized planets could migrate from distant, elliptical orbits as they release energy via dramatic shock waves in their outer atmospheres. Their results have been published in […]
Rubin Observatory reveals its first dwarf planet...
on October 27, 2026 at 10:30 pm
Scientists may add a new dwarf planet to the official roster of our solar system. The distant, icy body, provisionally dubbed 2026 ED138, orbits our system beyond Pluto. It was spotted earlier this month by a scientist combing through data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Webb links interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to worlds...
on October 27, 2026 at 2:00 pm
A Southwest Research Institute–led study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system ever identified. The observations point to tiny aggregates of water ice and dust, about a micron or smaller.
Water as we've never known it: Physicists test...
on October 20, 2026 at 8:10 pm
Water isn't always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has been discovered to change its atomic structure, giving it the means to alter its appearance and other properties.
Planetary 'twins' Uranus and Neptune may have...
on October 19, 2026 at 10:40 pm
By indirectly probing the depths of Uranus and Neptune's atmospheres, an international team of scientists has revealed a significant contrast in their chemical composition. Neptune appears to be more enriched in oxygen than Uranus. These results suggest that the two ice giants may have formed in different regions of the primitive solar system before reaching their current orbits, calling into question the idea of a common origin for these two planets, often considered twins.