- Neptune cannot be seen without a large telescope and was first seen in 1846 from the observatory in Berlin.
- BUT, the existence of Neptune had actually been “discovered” a year earlier, in 1845.
- The Berlin observatory, following Le Verrier’s calculations giving the possible position of this object, searched for Neptune and found the planet. They named it Neptune after the roman god of sea.
- Neptune has a diameter of 29,297 miles, or 47,150 kilometres. The Earth has a diameter of 7928 miles (12,760 kilometres).
- Neptune is one of the four “gas giants”. Like Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, it is composed only of gas. Neptune is a great ball of hydrogen and helium.
- In 2011 Neptune completed the first orbit of the Sun since its discovery 165 years before in 1846.
- Neptune is 30.1 Astronomical Units from the Sun, a staggering 2793 million miles (4495 million kilometres) from the Sun, and 2700 million miles from the Earth.