Welcome to our Solar / Planetary Walk which has been established in memorial to Alfred Piff, a longtime member of MBG and supporter of education for all. As you travel along the walk, you will experience the scale model of our solar neighborhood. Our walk is approximately .79 miles, and each planet is marked by Planetary Art Posts created by Nancy Thomas. Scanning the QR at each post will give access to information about each planet. Enjoy your walk!
Planet NEPTUNE
Bright white clouds of methane gas float high in the atmosphere of deep-blue ice giant Neptune. Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system and for several years had a large dark storm much like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. The large moon Triton has geysers of nitrogen or methane. Neptune’s surface gravity is 1.14 g’s.
DIAMETER: 30,777 miles
DISTANCE FROM SUN: 30.0 AU = 2.8 billion miles = 4.2 light hours
ROTATION: 19.2 hours
REVOLUTION AROUND ORBIT: 165 years
MOONS: Triton, Neried, plus at least 10 others
NAMED FOR: Neptune, the Roman god of the sea
Some Fun Facts - Did you know?
Neptune’s huge storm spot has disappeared in recent years as the planet’s atmosphere shifted and changed. NASA/Hubble.
Geysers spew on Neptune’s largest moon, Triton. NASA/Voyager
Methane clouds come and go in Neptune’s atmosphere NASA/Hubble
