Neptune is the furthest planet from our Sun and named after the Roman God of the sea. As far as planetary bodies are concerned it is the fourth largest planet in diameter and the third largest in mass. An interesting notation is that Neptune was the first planet ever discovered by mathematical calculation derived by French astronomer Alexis Bouvard. From visual studies he determined that there was an interruption in Uranus’s orbit that could only be caused by a gravitational field large enough to be from a separate planet, and by deducting the relative interruption in orbit he hypothesized where an additional planet should have been located within our solar system. As director of the Paris Observatory, Bouvard vigilantly searched for the spherical object he insisted was there but he was never able to substantiate this theory. The discovery of Neptune and its largest moon Triton was not made until after his death, but since it was located due to his mathematical research fellow scientists John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier granted him the formal credit for the discovery.
Composition wise, Neptune is very similar to Uranus in that it is comprised of mostly ices formed from ammonia, methane, and water. The methane present within its outmost regions grants the planet its blue coloration when seen from afar, and like Uranus it has extremely cold surface temperatures reaching negative three hundred degrees Ferinheight. Since Neptune is one and a half times further from the Sun and receives only forty percent as much sunlight, it is known that the planet must exert some form of internal heat to make up for the difference. Neptune has been found to generate almost two and a half times more energy than it absorbs from sunlight, which in itself is quite a mystery that scientists can not fully explain.
Neptune also possesses some of the most extreme weather found anywhere within the solar system, which is a bit puzzling to scientists that the furthest planet from the Sun would expel among the highest levels of energy. In 1989 scientists discovered an anti cyclonic storm system in the Southern Hemisphere that had close similarities to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter; then in 1994 the planet was viewed with the assistance of the Hubble Telescope and a similar storm movement was spotted within the Northern Hemisphere. Surface winds have been verified blowing as strong as thirteen hundred miles per hour, which is by far the strongest found anywhere within our solar system.
Neptune is never visible to the naked eye due to the extreme distance from Earth and its relatively low brightness measuring between 7.7 and 8.0, but through moderately powered telescopes partial ring formations and several moons have been discovered. The largest moon, Triton, is completely unique from previous discoveries because it rotates against Neptune’s orbit. Because of its unnatural rotation around Neptune it could not have formed within the region, and scientists hypothesize that it was actually a dwarf planet originating from the nearby Kuiper belt. Measured in 1989, Triton was considered the coldest object within the solar system; and because of its unnatural rotation it will eventually be destroyed by Neptune’s gravitational pull and tidal surges.