Welcome to Neptune!
You have reached stop #9 on Plymouth PTA’s Mission: Planet Exploration, a driving tour of the solar system designed to scale based on a 6-foot sun at Plymouth Elementary School! Click on Mission: Planet Exploration for more info, including a map to all 8 planets.
Image Credit: NASA
The Windiest Planet
Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun and is our solar system’s windiest planet. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 1,200 mph—close to the top speed of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet!
Neptune is very similar to Uranus, the last planet you visited. Like Uranus, Neptune is an ice giant and its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. Methane is also what gives Neptune its blue color.
Neptune is so far away from the Sun that sunlight looks 900 times dimmer on Neptune than it does here on Earth.
More kid-friendly facts about Mercury can be found at the NASA Science Space Place.
More in-depth information about Mercury can be found at NASA Science Solar System Exploration.