NASA Makes UNEXPECTED Discovery On the Neptune | What Is It?

 

when it comes to exploring the planets in our solar system there are two planets that are noticeably overlooked uranus and more specifically neptune the large ice giant and eighth planet from the sun neptune seems to be left out of the majority of missions nevertheless voyager 2 and the hubble space telescope have captured some fascinating images of this cold and mysterious world welcome to fact nominal and today we will be taking a closer look at the intriguing blue planet and everything we know about it so far

 one simply cannot talk about neptune without making mention of its famous large moon triton some would even argue that the satellite is more famous and garners more attention than even the planet itself being the only moon in the entire solar system to orbit opposite of its planet it's not surprising therefore that when voyager 2 set out on its mission it actually gathered some stunning and breathtaking photos of not only neptune but of its mighty satellite in one such image the voyager captured the crescent of both the blue planet and triton

 according to nasa the spacecraft was plunging southward at an angle of 48 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic when the image was taken another image is the global color mosaic of triton showing off the moon in all its wondrous mystique it is thought to have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere and is perhaps the only satellite in the solar system that has a nitrogen ice surface the blue-green band across triton is thought to be nitrogen frost while the more pink-colored band is believed to be methane ice

 similar to the great red spot that has been observed on jupiter voyager 2 took a photo of what seems to be a gigantic anti-cyclonic storm in the planet's southern atmosphere that scientists have simply dubbed as a great dark spot neptune does boast of some of the strangest weather conditions among its neighboring planets holding the record for the fastest winds with speeds cutting through the atmosphere at 1100 miles per hour that's one and a half times the speed of sound let that sink in the dark spot on neptune is said to stretch out about 4 600 miles across the planet's surface it also has a little companion storm dark spot junior which scientists say could just be a piece of the original storm that has broken up originally the voyager spotted the large storm in the smaller fast-moving storm they called scooter but some four years later astronomers searched for the same storm through the hubble telescope and it appeared to completely vanish scientists are still unsure of how and why it disappeared meet hippocamp the blue planet's smallest moon discovered yet nasa's hubble space telescope was able to capture an image of neptune's smallest and perhaps newest moon yet hippocamp named after the seahorses that pulled neptune's chariot according to greek mythology is only 21 miles across and hovers alarmingly close to one of neptune's largest moons proteus to be precise the two are actually only 7450

 miles apart

 because of this many astronomers believe that the little satellite has actually had quite a violent past hippocamp may have actually been formed as a result of the debris being blasted off from proteus after colliding with a comet had it come from anywhere else the giant moon would have given it the boot or swallowed it up discovered in 2013 among the images taken by the hubble space telescope hippocam sure is special it is the smallest known moon of the farthest known planet in our solar system bringing the count for neptune's moons to 14.

 just two hours prior to its closest approach of the big blue planet voyager 2 captured the most stunning image of neptune

 neptune's surface is not anything like our own planet earth since it mostly consists of layers upon layers of gas it is coated in thick clouds with the interior being made up of heavy and compressed gases think of it as a giant blue ball of gas just suspended in the air in the image captured by the spacecraft you can see the white strips of cloud formations which are heavily concentrated in certain areas neptune's cloud storm systems revolve around the planet at speeds of 700 miles per hour why some regions seem to have more cloud clusters together than others is still a mystery to be solved [Music]

 here on earth when you think of the pole regions whether north or south it probably sends a chill down your spine just thinking of the freezing conditions well this isn't the case on neptune in fact the south pole on the blue gas giant is actually its warmest place but then again neptune's average temperature is about negative 328 degrees fahrenheit or negative 200 degrees celsius so perhaps warm in this case is still actually pretty cold in the images captured by voyager 2 it shows the high white clouds swirling around a faint vortex at the planet's south pole

 the clouds seem to cast shadows on the blue atmosphere below it if you view the infrared version of the image you can clearly see the bright spot illuminated at the base of the planet showing just how much warmer the south pole is on neptune so just a heads up if you're planning to float around in neptune's atmosphere consider taking a trip down south [Music]

 neptune may not have an abundance of satellites like jupiter or saturn but it doesn't make its moons any less interesting triton is by far neptune's most intriguing and famous satellite yet nasa's voyager 2 spacecraft approached the planet's moon and was able to capture three sequential images of erupting volcanoes on triton the images show the almost geyser-like plume spewing up a five mile long or eight kilometer cloud of very fine dark particles into triton's atmosphere the voyager scientists say that these eruptions could be due to the sunlight being absorbed by the dark particles inside of triton's ice cap which warms the nitrogen ice and causes the pressurized gas to escape through vents as of now earth triton and jupiter's heavily cratered moon io are well known for their active volcanic activity it looks like hurricanes are a common occurrence even on giant planets like neptune

 in an image captured by voyager 2 you can see two hurricanes spinning on neptune's surface being a gas giant neptune has no solid surface

 if a person were to attempt to stand on neptune well they'd sink into the gaseous layers immediately neptune's surface is said to be composed of approximately 80 hydrogen 19 helium and the rest of it has traces of methane because that is not a solid body and mostly just made up of layers and layers of gas its atmosphere undergoes differential rotation the equatorial zone rotates with a period of 18 hours and in stark contrast the polar regions have a rotation period of about 12 hours compared to any other planet in the solar system the differential rotation is extremely pronounced thus resulting in extremely strong winds and violent storms

 one of the notable discoveries and images captured by the voyager 2 mission was that of the satellite narrated the satellite was actually first discovered with a ground-based telescope by gerard kuiper but it was only until voyager 2 sent back images of the moon that its existence was solidified being one of neptune's outermost moons there is something very unique about narrate and that is its rather eccentric orbit

 the satellite is actually so far from its planet neptune that it would take an equivalent of 360 earth days to make a single orbit

 astronomers and scientists are of the opinion that perhaps the moon is actually a captured asteroid of kbo or kuiper belt object until we have another flyby mission to the planet the history of narit's past remains a mystery and neptune will continue to hold the moon in its orbit on june 25th 2011 neptune completed its orbit of the sun and arrived at the exact same location in space where it was first discovered 165 years earlier to celebrate this occasion or neptune's discovery anniversary nasa along with the help of its hubble space telescope captured breathtaking images of the blue green gas giant

 the image showcases the planet in all its glory and is quite a nice way to celebrate the occasion well one thing is for certain it's high time we take another trip to neptune to discover all that the planet has to offer

 the new horizon spacecraft is currently orbiting pluto its icy moons and the kuiper belt just beyond the edge of neptune's orbit it is neptune's time to shine and finally get a mission of its own

 nasa currently has no plans of exploring the planet in the near future except for the proposed neptune odyssey mission in 2031 but a tentative chinese mission is said to be in the works for 2024 if there is anything we have learned from shocking new findings on planets like venus which had previously been severely overlooked is that we must first get to know our neighboring planets before we can head out deeper into space perhaps the answers we are looking for are right here closer than we think which planet do you think nasa should explore next tell us in the comments below don't forget to smash that like button and subscribe to our channel for more space articles like this thanks for reading we'll see you next time