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All About Neptune for Kids: Astronomy and Space for Children - FreeSchool

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10 Saturn Facts for Kids | Solar System Facts for Kids

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All About Uranus for Kids: Astronomy and Space for Children - FreeSchool

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All About Jupiter for Children: Astronomy and Space for Kids - FreeSchool

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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Top 5 Fun Facts about Saturn! Learn about the  Solar System (Videos for Kids)

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Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, may initially look like a bland, blue-green ball. But there's a lot to love about the icy giant, from its 13 rings to its 27 known moons to the fact that it may even rain diamonds from its hazy atmosphere.

Uranus was the first of three planets in our solar system discovered thanks to the invention of the telescope. In March 1781 British astronomer Sir William Herschel spotted the glinting object in the sky, initially mistaking it for a comet. When it was accepted as a planet years later, Herschel lobbied to call the discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead, it got its official name from the Greek god of the sky, Uranus, who was both son and husband to Gaea, the goddess of Earth.

The planet Uranus was so hard to find in part because it is a whopping 1.8 billion miles away. But it is actually the third-largest planet in our solar system, and is roughly four times wider than Earth.

Like Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune, Uranus is a big ball of gas, often called a jovian or gas giant world. Uranus owes its vibrant blue-green hues not from unusual oceans but from an upper atmosphere flush with methane, which absorbs the sun's red light and scatters blue light back to our eyes.

The rest of planet's atmosphere is largely made of hydrogen and helium, with scant amounts of ammonia, water, and methane. Trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide also hint that, if you could visit this distant place without a spacesuit, the planet would smell like rotten eggs. While Saturn wears the crown for the least dense planet in our celestial family, Uranus is not far behind: Most of its mass is made up of an icy dense fluid of water, ammonia, and methane.

Side spinner

One particularly curious feature of Uranus is its off-kilter positioning. The gas giant is tipped on its side, spinning on its axis at nearly a right angle to its orbital path around the sun, which requires a lengthy 84 Earth-years to complete. Scientists believe that this unexpected tilt is the result of a massive collision with something the size of Earth far in the planet's past.

Thanks to its sideways turn, Uranus has some wild seasons, with the sun blazing across each pole for 21 Earth-years at a time while the opposing side lingers in the pitch blackness of space. And that's not the only strange thing about its spin. Like Venus, Uranus has what's known as a retrograde rotation, turning on its axis in the opposite direction to the rest of the planets.

Also topsy turvy is Uranus' magnetosphere, the magnetic field enveloping the gaseous world. It's tipped nearly 60 degrees from the axis of rotation. That sets the planet's auroras out of line, making them appear far from the poles, unlike those on Earth.

Beneath the blue

Only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has ever flown by Uranus at close range. The craft came as near as 50,600 miles to Uranus' cloud tops in 1986, giving scientists their first detailed peek at both the planet and its many curious moons.

During that encounter, Voyager 2 snapped what is perhaps the most famous picture of Uranus-a pale turquoise orb in a sea of darkness. But follow-up observations have since shown that there's more there than initially meets the eye. Voyager 2 captured the planet during its solstice, when one pole was bathed in sunlight and so kept a constant temperature. The lack of thermal change keeps winds to a minimum, making the planet seem bland and static.

But when Uranus moves toward its equinox-a period of time when day and night are of equal length-the sun illuminates the planet's equator. Different parts of the orb absorb the sun's rays during its 17-hour-long day, and the difference in temperature drives a swirl of storms.

What's more, Uranus's methane acts like a blue shroud, obscuring the features that lie below to telescopes operating in optical light. Infrared images, however, can pierce the layer and peer at the swirl of clouds that hide below.

There's still much more to learn about these tempests. In 2014, between Uranus's infrequent equinoxes, astronomers using the 10-meter Keck telescope spotted eight stunning squalls below its blue blanket. Scientists suggest that perhaps these vortices are rooted deeper in the atmosphere, like the storms of Jupiter. But to know for sure, researchers would need a closer look.

Voyager 2's flyby also revealed 10 previously undiscovered moons and two new rings, and its data continued to be a trove of information long after the spacecraft sailed by. In 2016, scientists reexamining Voyager 2 data discovered the possibility that the planet may harbor two more tiny moons.

Though no plan is currently in the works to go back for an even closer look, Uranus likely holds many more secrets just waiting to be discovered.

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Uranus, the Seventh Planet in Our Solar System

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Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, may initially look like a bland, blue-green ball. But there's a lot to love about the icy giant, from its 13 rings to its 27 known moons to the fact that it may even rain diamonds from its hazy atmosphere.

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Jupiter Facts For Children - Let's Explore The Solar System 04

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Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child.

Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour. That soothing sapphire expanse does reveal some of the whirling chaos below in the form of cloudy bands and massive gyres that look like dark smudges on its surface.

One "Great Dark Spot" captured by Voyager 2 in 1989 could have fit an entire Earth inside. Though it's since disappeared, others have taken its place. In March of 2019, astronomers revealed for the first time that they witnessed the birth of one of Neptune's massive storms. Nearly as big as the maelstrom that Voyager documented, the baby storm seemed to take shape from bright white clouds between 2015 through 2017, emerging as a full-fledged gyre in 2018.

Dreaming of blue

Orbiting at a distance of roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun, Neptune is the furthest planet yet discovered in our solar system (that is, after Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006). Neptune rotates quickly compared to Earth, with one day taking 16 Earth hours. But its great distance from the sun means the years are long, requiring 165 Earth years to make one trip around our glowing star.

At such a distance from Earth, Neptune is the solar system's only planet that can't be seen in our night sky without a telescope. Even neighboring Uranus, though faint, glints overhead on a clear dark night. That means that Neptune wasn't an easy planet to discover. Some suggest that Galileo Galilei first spotted Neptune as early as 1613. Many believe that he mistook it for a star at the time, yet some scientists think that may not be the case.

Most attribute Neptune's discovery to mathematical mastery in the 1800s. After the discovery of Uranus at the turn of the century, astronomers noticed it seemed to be affected by a strange gravitational tug. This oddity led British mathematician John Couch Adams to calculate Neptune's potential position in the 1840s. A couple of years later, French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier did the same.

The calculations were finally confirmed in 1846 when German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle used Le Verrier's predictions to locate the ice giant, which was dubbed Neptune after the Roman god of the sea.

Frosty but hot

Neptune is just one of two ice giants in our cosmic family, along with Uranus. It's blanketed in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, with traces of methane, water, and ammonia. Underneath an initial chilly layer, temperatures and pressures rapidly increase.

Deep under its cloud tops, Neptune might sport a vast, roiling-hot ocean of water that envelops its rocky core. But not all scientists agree that the planet is cool enough for such liquid to stick around without evaporating.

Methane in the atmosphere reflects blue light, painting the world in vibrant color. In most pictures, Neptune seems to be a deeper and more brilliant blue than Uranus, which looks like a pale turquoise dot. But Neptune is likely similarly pale as its neighbor and just appears darker in images because of its greater distance from the sun. Still, according to NASA, there may be some other, unknown component of Neptune's atmosphere that colors the world a slightly different hue.

Celestial tagalongs

Neptune has 14 known moons as of 2019. Its largest celestial tagalong, Triton, is the solar system's only large moon that has a retrograde orbit, which means it zips around Neptune in the opposite direction than its host planet's rotation. This curious orbital direction may be evidence that it wasn't always a moon.

Instead, researchers propose Triton started as a binary system-similar to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. As it passed by, Neptune's gravity kidnapped Triton from the pair and trapped it in orbit. Triton has a thin atmosphere that seems to be growing warmer, but scientists are unsure why.

Five known rings of rocks and dust encircle Neptune-all named after astronomers who helped bring to light details about the windy world. The ring names are Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams. Neptune also has several partial rings, known as arcs.

Only one spacecraft has ever visited the dark blue world. Voyager 2 whipped by in 1989, collecting captivating data and images. Though many scientists have proposed additional visits, none have yet been approved.

Until another plan is crafted to visit Neptune, researchers will have to appease their curiosity from afar, capitalizing on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as telescopes that have their bases firmly planted on the ground.

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Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child. Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour.

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All About Saturn for Children: Astronomy and Space for Kids - FreeSchool

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Get amused watching a wonderful personally chosen and very simple to understand Facts About Uranus easy science for kids video:
Why Watch this Facts About Uranus Video

This animated video is all about planet Uranus. With this video, you will learn how Uranus is the 7th planet furthest from the sun and how it is the coldest planet in our solar system. You will find out some interesting facts like how this planet rotates on its side after being hit by an object, how a year on Uranus is equal to 84 Earth years, how a day only lasts 17 hours and how Uranus rotates in the opposite direction as Earth. Find out more fun facts about planet Uranus, about its rings, moons and more with this short video.

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Best Facts About Uranus Video for Kids -

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Get amused watching a wonderful personally chosen and very simple to understand Facts About Uranus easy science for kids video: This animated video is all about planet Uranus. With this video, you will learn how Uranus is the 7th planet furthest from the sun and how it is the coldest planet in our solar system.

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Jupiter is the largest planet in the entire solar system. This planet is named after the King of Roman gods. It is the fourth brightest object in the earth's sky. Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. It has 67 confirmed moons which are divided into three groups: -Inner moons, Galilean moons and Outer moons. There are four Galilean moons: - Io, Castillo, Europa and Ganymede. Ganymede is the largest of all 67 of them. It is also the largest moon among all other planets. This planet has a faint ring system around it which is mostly comprised of dust particles.
Quick Facts: -

Jupiter takes 11.86 earth days to complete one orbit of the sun.

This planet has a very strong magnetic field that is around 14 times stronger than earth's.

There is a huge storm on Jupiter named the Great Red Spot. It has been raged for at least 350 years.

This planet has unique cloud features. Its upper atmosphere is divided into cloud belts and zones.

Interior of the planet is made of rock, metal and hydrogen compounds.

Till now, total eight spacecrafts have visited the planet. These spacecrafts are: - Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini, Ulysses and New Horizon.

Jupiter spins very quickly on its axis. A day on Jupiter lasts only about 9 hours and 55 minutes.

The clouds on the planets are 50 kilometres thick.

It is the fifth planet from the Sun and is about 483 million miles from the Sun.

It is the stormiest planet of the entire solar system.

Jupiter appears flattened at the poles with a bulge at the equator.

The bulge is caused by its quick rotational speed.

It is a failed star because if it gained more mass, its size would decrease.

It emits more energy than it gets from the Sun.

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Jupiter is the largest planet in the entire solar system. This planet is named after the King of Roman gods. It is the fourth brightest object in the earth's sky. Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. It has 67 confirmed moons which are divided into three groups: -Inner moons, Galilean moons and Outer moons.

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Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun as it sits on the eighth position. It is the smallest of all the gas giants with an equatorial radius of 24,764 km. Neptune's surface gravity is only 17% stronger than the earth. It is the coldest planet and has the strongest winds in the entire solar system. Temperature on Neptune can dip down to -221.45°C. This planet has a ring system as well although it is difficult to observe. There are total five rings of Neptune. This planet is named after the Roman god of the sea.
Quick Facts: -

NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft that has ever visited the planet Neptune on August 25.

Neptune is the fourth largest planet in the entire solar system.

There is methane present in the atmosphere of Neptune that absorbs the red light. This is the reason why it appears blue.

Diameter of the planet is 49,493 kilometres.

Neptune has total 13 moons: - Psamathe, Sao, Neso, Halimede, Laomedeia, Nereid, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Despina, Naiad, Thalassa and Triton.

Triton is the largest of all of them and the only large moon with retrograde orbit.

The surface temperature of Triton can reach as low as -240°C.

This planet can never be seen by naked human eye.

The atmosphere of Neptune is composed of 80% hydrogen, 19% helium and the remaining 1% is a mixture of other gases.

One year on Neptune lasts for approximately 165 earth years.

Similar to other gas giants, Neptune has no solid surface.

This planet has an unknown internal source of heat as it radiates 2.6 times more energy than it receives from the Sun.

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Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun as it sits on the eighth position. It is the smallest of all the gas giants with an equatorial radius of 24,764 km. Neptune's surface gravity is only 17% stronger than the earth. It is the coldest planet and has the strongest winds in the entire solar system.

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All about Saturn
Saturn is the second largest and fifth brightest planet of the solar system but it has the lowest density. It is the sixth planet from the earth. It is the most distant planet which is clearly visible to the human eye. But if telescope are used then some other features such as the planet's rings can be easily seen.

Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer had observed these rings for the first time in 1610. This planet can be called a gas giant because it is made up of Hydrogen, Methane and Helium. It is large enough to hold more than 800 earths.
Fast facts: -

The rings we see are made of small wedges of ice and rock. These rings are not solid.

It has a total of 53 moons.

A year on Saturn is more than 30 years on earth.

It is also called as 'the ringed planet'.

Saturn takes 29.4 earth years to orbit the Sun.

So far four spacecraft have visited Saturn.

Saturn has a slightly weaker magnetic field than the magnetic field on earth.

The rings are huge but thin. They are less than a kilometer in thickness.

Surface temperature on Saturn is -139°C.

The axis of the planet is tilted and as it orbits the Sun, we get different views of the rings.

NASA's Pioneer 11 was the first to visit Saturn in 1979.

The planet has a core made up of rock and metal. It is equal to the earth in size.

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Cool Facts about the Planet Saturn for Kids

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All about Saturn Saturn is the second largest and fifth brightest planet of the solar system but it has the lowest density. It is the sixth planet from the earth. It is the most distant planet which is clearly visible to the human eye.

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Kids learn about the planet Jupiter of the Solar System including fun facts, mass, day, year, and distance from the Sun. Astronomy for kids and teachers.

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Kids learn about the ice giant planet Neptune of the Solar System including fun facts, mass, day, year, and distance from the Sun. Astronomy for kids and teachers.

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Like Neptune, Saturn is a large gas planet made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It spins so fast that it has flattened out on the top and bottom and widened in the middle, by the equator, just like the Earth.

It doesn't have a solid surface and being the second largest planet in our solar system it can be seen with the naked eye from Earth. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful planets because of its awesome rings.

Let's learn some cool facts about Saturn!

How was Saturn Discovered?

Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturnus, the god of agriculture and harvest. It was spotted by Galileo through his telescope in 1610.

He was surprised to see it had two objects on each side of the planet and he wasn't sure what these were, he thought they were handles. How weird, having handles on a planet!

It was later in 1659 a Dutch astronomer called Huygens, using a more powerful telescope saw they were rings surrounding the planet.

NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) says there are seven rings made mostly of water ice with many gaps and spaces between them.

These rings vary in thickness in terms of the particles inside them. Some are tiny particles of dust and others are the size of a house.

These particles are thought to come from old moons which used to circle the planet but were smashed up by comets and meteorites crashing into them.

The force of gravity then drew them into the rings that circulate the planet. Saturn's magnetic field is very strong which means very high levels of radiation.

What about Saturn's Rings?

Today we know that there is a distance of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) between these rings which is called the Cassini Division.

The rings have a yellow or gold color which is from the rising heat from the planet's interior combined with the super powerful winds which blow at 1,118 (1,800 kilometers) per hour.

Saturn has at least 53 moons. Wow that's a lot. Some of them orbit the planet within the rings and create gaps. They have wonderful names like Titan, Pandora and Calypso.

There are apparently another 9 moons which we're waiting to hear if it's true or not.

Some of these moons apparently have conditions that could support life, but the planet Saturn itself certainly can't.

One of the icy moons called Mimas, which is currently being studied by NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission, has either got a core shaped a bit like a football or it contains a liquid water ocean.

How does Saturn orbit the Sun?

Saturn orbits the sun and takes 29 Earth years to do so. One day on Saturn takes 10.7 hours - that is one rotation. It is the sixth planet from the sun which is about 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away.

In December 2010 the Cassini mission first detected a storm on Saturn which was still raging in June 2011. Wow, that's one long storm to say the least.

The storm - complete with lightning and sound effects - completely wrapped the entire planet, was as wide as the earth and about 500 times larger than any previous storm since Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004.

On Earth, storms happen frequently, but on Saturn things are quiet for years and then suddenly storms erupt violently. Apparently changing seasons and solar illumination affects the weather on Saturn.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images in 1990 of an equally large storm.

And finally, if you could put Saturn in a glass of water it would float as its density is lower than the density of water - a pretty tricky exercise to prove!

Interesting Facts about Saturn

Saturn is sometimes called "The Jewel of the Solar System."

The rings are huge yet tiny: the main rings could cover almost the entire distance between Earth and the moon yet they are about half a mile (less than a kilometer) thick.

We now know that other planets have rings, but Saturn's are the only ones that are visible from Earth even with a small telescope.

The Ringed Planet is so far away from the Sun that it receives only about 1/80th the amount of sunlight that we do here on Earth.

Useful Links

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Like Neptune, Saturn is a large gas planet made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It spins so fast that it has flattened out on the top and bottom and widened in the middle, by the equator, just like the Earth.

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Kids learn about the ice giant planet Uranus of the Solar System including fun facts, mass, day, year, and distance from the Sun. Astronomy for kids and teachers.

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Fun Jupiter facts for kids including photos; suitable for Kindergarten through Grade 6.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars.

In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants.
In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun.

Neptune Statistics:

Distance from Sun: 2.793 billion mi

Rings: 5

Radius: 15,299 mi

Polar Diameter: 48,682 km

Orbital period: 165 years

Mass: 1.024 × 10^26 kg (17.15 M⊕)

Moons: (14, including Triton)

Date of Discovery: September 23, 1846 by Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Galle

How did Neptune get its name:

Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system and is known for its beautiful blue color. It was this color that was used to name it after the Roman god of the sea. The Greeks called their god of the sea, Poseidon. Neptune also has a diameter that makes it the 4th largest planet and it is third largest by mass.

Neptune wasn't located by just using sight, but instead became the first planet found using mathematical calculations.

Urbain Le Verrier had a series of predictions that were carried forth by Johann Galle in 1946. Le Verrier suggested that the planet be named after the Roman god of the sea.

Formation:

Our solar system went through a lot of changes as it was formed. Some of the larger planets are believed to have been closer to the sun and it's thought that other bodies may have been tossed out or crashed into existing planets to merge to the ones that we know today.

Around 4 billion years ago Neptune moved from the inner area of the solar system to its current position. It wasn't until 4.5 billion years ago that the planets finally settled to the configuration that we have now.

Structure and Surface:

Neptune is one of our solar system's two ice giants. Both Neptune and Uranus exist in the outer solar system. Around 80% of Neptune's mass consists of dense hot fluid of "icy" materials such as water, ammonia, and methane.

The fluids are around a rocky, small core. Neptune is considered to be one of the "giant" planets and yet is also the densest. Scientists have theorized that there might be a superhot water ocean under the cold clouds of Neptune that doesn't boil away due to the high pressure that locks it inside.

The planet doesn't really have a solid surface as most of its mass is made of gases.

The hydrogen, methane, and helium goes down to deep levels and merges with water and melted liquids that are over a solid core that has around the same mass as the Earth.

Neptune and Uranus have similarities when it comes to the inside of the planets. Both have two layers: a rocky core and a dense, hot liquid mantle made of water, ammonia, and methane.

The rocky core of Uranus is believed to be around 1.2 times the size of Earth's and the mantle is thought to be between 10-15 times that of Earth's mass.

While both Uranus and Neptune might share some characteristics and features, Uranus gives off as much heat as it receives from the sun and yet Neptune gives off around 2.61 times the heat that it gets.

This is unusual as both Neptune and Uranus have the same surface temperature.

Neptune only receives 40% of the sun's heat energy that Uranus gets. The excess amount of internal heat is thought to be what keeps the upper atmosphere wind speeds going.

Neptune spins rather quickly and has the third shortest "day" of any planet in the solar system. Its size and rotation mean that it takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to make a full orbit around the sun.

There are 14 moons around Neptune, and the largest moon is Triton, which is shaped like a sphere and has a rotation that is opposite that of Neptune.

Scientists think that at one time in history Triton was actually a dwarf planet that Neptune caught in its gravity.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Very similar to the planet Uranus, Neptune's upper atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen (80%), helium (19%), and trace amounts of the methane that gives it the blue coloring.

Neptune has a much deeper shade of blue that makes it different than Uranus in atmospheric composition.

While Neptune's ice giant neighbor, Uranus, is a blue-green color due to high levels of atmospheric methane, Neptune is mostly hydrogen and helium, giving it a brighter shade of blue.

Scientists believe that there may be an unknown element that causes Neptune to have a more intense color.

We give credit to the Voyager 2 spacecraft mission for discovering Neptune's "Dark Spots." These are similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter because they are large storms.

Additional research from the Hubble Space Telescope has shown that the storms on Neptune or "dark spots" have fairly short lives.

During the mission, Voyager 2 also found other weather patterns including a smaller, short-lived white storm that moved so fast that it was nicknamed "Scooter."

As a gas giant, Neptune shares the same atmospheric characteristic of being divided into two bands, but Neptune's bands have wind speeds that can reach up to 600 m/s.

At this speed Neptune has the fastest known winds of any planet within the solar system.A 1989 discovery of an oval-shaped storm in the southern hemisphere of Neptune was named its "Great Dark Spot."

This spot is big enough to hold the entire Earth, and while this one disappeared, others have shown up on various areas of the planet.

Neptune's magnetic field main axis is tipped to the side by around 47 degrees as compared to Neptune's planetary rotation axis.

Both Neptune and Uranus have magnetic axis that are tilted and the tilt causes wild variations as the planet rotates. Neptune's magnetic field is around 27 time stronger than that of Earth.

There are 13 known moons and one provisional moon around Neptune. Triton is the largest moon and was discovered in 1846, just 17 days after the discovery of the planet.

Since Neptune is the Roman god of the sea, all of the names of Neptune's moons are for Greek mythology nymphs or lesser sea gods.

Triton holds the distinction of being the only large moon within our solar system that circles its planet in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.

This is called a retrograde orbit and is thought to be due to the idea that the moon was once an independent object that Neptune captured with its gravity.

Triton has surface temperatures that reach -391 degrees F/235 degrees C, and while extremely cold, Voyager 2 found geysers that spewed icy material up to 5 mi/8 km high.

Voyager also discovered that Triton has a thin atmosphere and while it has been detected numerous times since then, scientists aren't sure why it's getting warmer.

There are six known rings around Neptune, five are named and one remains unnamed. The named rings are Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams.

Neptune's rings are believed to be relatively short-lived and young, and contain unusual collections of dust that are called "arcs." These are strange because the laws of motion indicate that they shouldn't be in clumps but should spread out evenly.

Scientists believe that they may be affected by the gravitational effects of the moon Galatea.

There are four notable arcs in Adam, Neptune's outer ring that have been named: Liberté (Liberty), Egalité (Equality), Fraternité (Fraternity), and Courage.

Could Life Exist on Neptune?

The extreme temperatures and pressures of Neptune are not conducive to allowing life as we know it to exist, adapt, and thrive.

Interesting Information:

While Pluto was once considered to be a planet, it has been downsized to a dwarf planet. Due to the elliptical orbit that Pluto has it is sometimes closer to both the sun and Earth than Neptune is.

One "Neptunian day" is 16 hours. That's how long it takes for Neptune to accomplish a complete rotation. However, a Neptunian year, which is the time that it takes Neptune to orbit the sun is around 165 Earth years.

Space Missions to Neptune:

In 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft studied Neptune up close. This was over 140 years after the predictions made by Le Verrier about Neptune. Voyager 2 remains the first-and-only spacecraft to study Neptune, and it sent back an incredible volume of information and data about the planet and its moons.

Voyager 2 also confirmed that the ice giant had faint rings like other gas giant planets. Since that time, scientists have relied on the Hubble Space Telescope for additional information about Neptune.

Important Events:

1612: Galileo uses his small telescope and makes an error by recording Neptune as a fixed star.
1846: Through the use of only mathematical calculations, astronomers increase the number of planets in our solar system to eight as they add Neptune. The same year, they discovered Triton, Neptune's biggest moon.
1983: Pioneer 10 becomes the first human-made spacecraft to travel beyond our solar system planets as it crosses the orbit of Neptune. The craft continues on its course as it heads to Aldebaran, a red star in the Taurus constellation, that it will pass in around 2,000,000 years.
1984: Astronomers studying Neptune discover evidence that Neptune has a ring system.
1989: Voyager 2 becomes the first and only spacecraft to visit Neptune. Voyager 2 passes Neptune at 2,983mi/4,800 km above Neptune's north pole.
2002: Astronomers discover four additional moons orbiting around Neptune and name them: Laomedia, Neso, Sao and Halimede.
2003: Using ground-based telescopes, astronomers discover Psamathe, another new moon around Neptune.
2005: Keck Observatory scientists discover deterioration in some of Neptune's rings.
2013: Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a scientist makes the discovery of a 14th Neptune moon and gives it the professional designation of S/2004 N 1.
2016: Using the Hubble Space Telescope scientists discover the 21st century's first new atmospheric vortex with a dark spot on Neptune.

Facts about Neptune for Kids:

Neptune's rings are so faint that prior to the Voyager 2 spacecraft mission, the rings weren't thought to be complete. Neptune has the faintest rings of all of the gas giants.

Even though Neptune is a gas giant it has the second largest gravity of all of the solar system planets.

Neptune has a Great Dark Spot that is the size of our Earth and a Small Dark Spot that is almost the size of our moon.

Our ancient ancestors didn't know that Neptune existed because it can't be seen with the naked eye or the telescopes that they developed.

The coldest known object in our solar system is Neptune's moon Triton that has temperatures on the surface that can dip down to -235 degrees C.

Only 17 days after the discovery of Neptune, astronomers discovered its moon Triton.

Pop Culture:

Neptune has been a frequent focus for quite a few science fiction and pop culture themes. The "Event Horizon" was a sci-fi/horror film in 1997 and Neptune was the backdrop for the storyline.

The animated series "Futurama" had Robot Santa Claus with a home based in the north pole of Neptune. The "Sleep No More" episode of Doctor Who was set on a space station that orbited around Neptune.

Star Trek: Enterprise had the episode "Broken Bow" where fans leaned that at the speed of warp 4.5 it would be possible to fly from Earth to Neptune and back in only six minutes.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/overview/

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Neptune Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Neptune

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Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system and is known for its beautiful blue color. It was this color that was used to name it after the Roman god

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If you like to watch the skies at night, you should check out these facts about one of the planets out there, the planet we call Saturn.

Saturn is the lightest planet in our solar system.

This planet is known as being a "gas giant". The other planets that are classed as gas giants are Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.

Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system.

The rings of Saturn are made of chunks of rock and ice.

If you was driving at 75 miles (121 km) per hour, it would take 258 days to drive around one of Saturn's rings.

Saturn's winds can blow up to 1,100 miles per hour, which makes it the windiest planet in our solar system.

As Saturn has a very low density, if you were able to put it into water, it would float!

Saturn is so big that Earth could fit into it whooping 755 times!

Saturn is twice as far away from the Sun as Jupiter is.

A year on Saturn would take almost thirty Earth years.

A day on Saturn is 10 hours 39 minutes.

Enceladus, one of Saturn's smaller moons, reflects some 90% of the sunlight, making it more reflective than snow!

Saturn is approximately 856 million miles away from the Sun.

Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture.

Saturn has 64 known moons orbiting it.

At times, Saturn can be the 3 rd brightest planet in night sky.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in the Solar System to possess an atmosphere.

Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with minor traces of water, methane and ammonia.

Galileo was the first to observe this planet with a telescope in 1610.

Saturn is the root of the English word "Saturday".

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20 Facts About The Planet Saturn | The Fact Site

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If you like to watch the skies at night, you should check out these facts about one of the planets out there, the planet we call Saturn. Saturn is the lightest planet in our solar system. This planet is known as being a "gas giant".

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Fun Uranus Facts for Kids - Cool Information About This Amazing Planet

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Check out our cool range of planet facts for kids. Enjoy some amazing trivia and have fun learning about the planets found in our Solar System.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars. In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants.

Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants. In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun.

Jupiter Statistics:

Distance from Sun: 483.8 million mi

Rings: 4

Radius: 43,441 mi

Polar Diameter: 133,709 km

Orbital period: 12 years

Mass: 1.90 × 10^27 kg (318 Earths)

Length of day: 0d 9h 56m

Surface area: 23.71 billion mi²

Effective Temperature: -148 °C

Moons: (79, including (Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto)

First Recorded: 7th-8th Century BCE by Babylonian astronomers

How did Jupiter get its name:

Jupiter was named after the Roman king of the gods. It's the fifth planet from the sun in our solar system and the largest planet of all. To give you an idea of how big Jupiter is, you could line up 11 Earths, side-by-side just to stretch from one side of Jupiter to the other.

Jupiter's mass is incredibly large as well and it would take 317 Earths to match the mass of Jupiter.

Formation:

Around 4.5 billion years ago our solar system settled into the configuration that we know today. Jupiter settled in its position as the fifth planet about 4 billion years ago.

Gravity played a major part in creating the planets as it pulls dust and swirling gas together. Jupiter is one of the gas giants and it's believed that it took most of the mass that was left after the sun was formed.

This is why Jupiter has over twice the materials of all of the other bodies in the solar system combined. Jupiter has the same ingredients as our own sun and if it had grown just a bit larger it would have ignited to become a second sun in our solar system.

Structure and Surface:

Jupiter is made up of a composition of mostly hydrogen and helium that is very similar to our sun. As a gas giant you have to go deep into the atmosphere to find that temperature and pressure has increased so much that it has compressed the hydrogen gas into a liquid form.

That hydrogen liquid gives Jupiter the largest ocean in the entire solar system. Scientists believe that nearing halfway to Jupiter's center the pressure is so great that electrons are squeezed away from the hydrogen atoms.

This would put the liquid into a condition where it is electrically conductive, like metals. It's thought that the fast rotation of the planet is enough to drive electrical currents in this area so that it generates the incredibly powerful magnetic field.

Scientists speculate that Jupiter's interior is made up of three regions: a rocky core with a mass of between 12-45 times the size of the Earth that is made-up of mostly iron and silicate minerals.

It's thought to be as hot as possibly 90,032 F/50,000 degrees C. The second region makes up most of Jupiter's mass and it surrounds the core with a layer of liquid hydrogen that is electrically conductive.

The third region is made up of ordinary hydrogen with some helium traces and this transitions to the atmosphere of the planet.

Jupiter is a gas giant and as such, doesn't really have what we would call a real "surface." The planet is made up of gases and liquids that are constantly swirling around.

If we tried to send a spacecraft to Jupiter there wouldn't be a place for it to land. A spacecraft would also be unable to fly due to the extreme temperatures and pressures that would crush, vaporize, and melt the spacecraft.

Jupiter's storms are incredibly huge and they seem to be created on the edges of the darker and lighter horizontal bands of the planet.

The biggest storm is The Great Red Spot, and it's nearing 25,000 km across. The Great Red Spot has been going on for centuries and is big enough to hold two Earths

Scientists have discovered that Jupiter actually gives off more energy than it receives from the sun.

They have figured out that Jupiter is so large that its mass exerts such an incredible gravitational force on itself that it compresses or squashes the planet. This process makes such a great quantity of heat that it becomes overloaded and throws it out into space.

As the fifth planet in the solar system, Jupiter is a tad more than five times the distance of the sun than Earth is.

A year for a planet is the amount of time that it takes to complete an orbit around the sun, and for Jupiter this takes 4,333 Earth days.

A day for a planet is the amount of time it takes to make one entire rotation and Jupiter sets the record in the solar system for a bit less than ten hours. The incredibly fast rotation that Jupiter has is what makes the bulge near its equator.

This bulge also makes it look less like a sphere. The sheer size of the planet and the fact that it's mostly made up of gas, without a solid body, has created an odd situation in that not all parts of Jupiter rotate at the same time.

The rotation of Jupiter's polar atmosphere rotates five minutes slower than that of the equator.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Scientists have had a difficult time trying to define Jupiter's atmosphere. This is due to the fact that its outer zone of gas changes into a liquid layer as you get closer into the planet.

They estimate that the atmospheric pressure on the "surface" of Jupiter is around ten times that at sea level on Earth.

The gases in the atmosphere are almost the same that make up our sun: 90% hydrogen and 10% helium.

There are a lot of colors in Jupiter's cloud bands and spots, and may be plumes of sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases that rise from the intense heat of the interior of the planet. It's thought that Jupiter has three distinct cloud layers that make up its "skies."

When added together these cloud layers expand to around 44 mi/71 km. The top cloud layer is most likely made up of ammonia ice, the middle layer is likely to consist of ammonium hydrosulfide crystals, and the innermost layer may be vapor and water ice.

Jupiter's incredibly fast rotation allows it to complete a rotation every 10 hours and this creates strong jet streams that separate the clouds into bright areas and dark belts for long stretches.

The "spots" on Jupiter are actually massive storms that can live for many years. As smaller storms form they are often engulfed by larger ones.

The prevailing winds can reach up to 335 mph/539 kph at the equator. The most well-known is The Great Red Spot which is a swirl of oval clouds twice as wide as our Earth.

We know that we have been observing this spot for over 300 years. Most recently three smaller oval storms merged together to form the Little Red Spot which is half the size of The Great Red Spot.

Scientists continue to study Jupiter and yet are unsure if these planet-circling bands and ovals are deeply rooted or shallow to the planet's interior.

Jupiter has 79 confirmed moons and scientists have divided them up into three groups. The inner moons are those that are closest to Jupiter; the Galilean moons, Galileo Galilei; and Outer moons, these are the smallest and most distant from Jupiter.

The biggest of Jupiter's moons is Ganymede and it's also the biggest moon in the solar system. An interesting thing about Ganymede is that even though it's a moon, it's larger than the planet Mercury.

Europa is one of the large moons that many scientists are interested in because they believe that there might be a liquid-water ocean beneath the frozen crust.

Jupiter has other large moons including Callisto and Io. It's thought that Jupiter has enough moons that it could be a miniature solar system.

Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field that balloons 600,000 to 2 million mi/1-3 million km toward the sun.

This is 7-21 times the diameter of Jupiter itself and the field tapers into a tadpole-shaped tail that extends out behind the planet more than 600 million mi/1 billion km.

This extension goes as far as the orbit of Saturn. The intense magnetic field of Jupiter is 16-54 times as powerful as the magnetic field of Earth and rotates with the planet, picking up any particles that have an electric charge.

The magnetic field traps swarms of charged particles near the planet and then speeds them up to extremely high energies, creating high intensity radiation that bombards the innermost moons.

It's this radiation that can cause a lot of damage to any spacecraft and why much of the exploration of Jupiter is often done from a distance. The magnetic field does create some of the most beautiful aurorae at its poles.

In 1979 the NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered a ring around Jupiter. This discovery was a surprise because they are made up of small dark particles that are almost impossible to see except when they are backlit by the sun.

Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft confirmed that the ring of Jupiter is probably formed by dust kicked up as meteoroids crash into the many moons that orbit Jupiter.

Could Life Exist on Jupiter?

The environment within Jupiter is not conducive to life as we know it. The pressures and temperatures, along with materials of Jupiter are too volatile and extreme for life to adapt to.

While Jupiter itself can't be a location for life, some of its moons could be. Europa is thought to be one of the likeliest places that life may be found anywhere in our solar system so far.

Evidence is showing that there is a huge ocean beneath Europa's crust with liquid water that could possible support life.

Interesting Information:

Jupiter's intense magnetic field is thought to be a contributing factor in protecting Earth from a worse bombardment of meteorites.

As meteorites enter the solar system from the exterior areas they are caught up by Jupiter before they have a chance to get close to Earth.

Space Missions to Jupiter:

Jupiter has been studied for many years, with the first observations detailed in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. Since then, we have sent a number of spacecraft, probes, and orbiters to take detailed images and collect data from Jupiter.

In the 1970's we sent Pioneer 10 and 11 as well as Voyager 1 and 2 for flybys of Jupiter. The Galileo spacecraft orbited the gas giant and sent a probe into the atmosphere.

When Cassini was heading to Saturn it took an array of images of Jupiter, and New Horizon did the same as it headed to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. In 2016 NASA's June spacecraft arrived in the Jovian system to study the gas giant in orbit.

1610: Galileo Galilei creates his Jupiter observations.

1973: Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to get through the asteroid belt and does a flyby passed Jupiter.

1979: Voyager 1 and 2 missions find the faint rings of Jupiter, a number of new moons that were not know about before and the fact that Io has volcanic activity.

1992: Ulysses mission does a swing by so that the gravity bent the flight path of the spacraft allowing the probe to a last orbit that took it over the south and north poles of the sun.

1994: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 enters Jupiter's atmosphere, breaks up and then crashes into Jupiter.

1995-2003: The Galileo spacecraft places a probe into the atmosphere of Jupiter to accomplish observations of the planet and its rings and moons.

2000: Cassini's close approach to Jupiter enables it to take full color photos of Jupiter.

2007: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft takes pictures of Jupiter on its way to Pluto. The pictures offer new information and data on the atmospheric storms on Jupiter, it's rings, Io's volcanic activity and the ice on Europa.

2016: NASA's Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter and conducts studies of the planets magnetosphere, atmosphere, and deep structure to help understand Jupiter's evolution and origin.

Facts about Jupiter for Kids:

If Jupiter had been 80 times more massive it would have become our second sun in the solar system.

Jupiter holds the title of being the solar system's fourth brightest object.

Jupiter's clouds are made up of mostly ammonia crystals, sulfur and mixtures of both of these.

As asteroids and comets have impacted Jupiter they kick up dust particles that have created a very faint ring around Jupiter.

The discovery of Jupiter's 4 moons by Galileo was the first proof that the Earth was not the center of the universe and evidence that planets orbited the sun.

We can only see five planets with the naked eye and Jupiter is one of them.

Pop Culture:

Jupiter has made a presence in many television shows, movies, comics, and video games. In the science fiction "Jupiter Ascending" it was the main destination. Jupiter's moons have also been noted in "Cloud Atlas, Futurama, Power Rangers, and Halo."

You might remember "Men in Black" when Will Smith, playing Agent J, comments that he thought his teacher was from Venus and Tommy Lee Jones, playing Agent K, corrects him to say that she was really from one of Jupiter's Moons.

In the movie "2010: The Year we Make Contact," Jupiter was ignited to become the second sun in our solar system and its moon Io was to be left alone to allow life to progress.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/
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Jupiter Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Jupiter

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Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star. It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it.