The windiest planet. Neptune has had one visitor, Voyager 2, in 1989. A year there lasts 165 of ours: found in 1846, it only came back round to the same place in its orbit in 2011.
Across
49,240 km
Surface
7,618 million km²
A day
16 h 7 min
A year
164.8 Earth years
From the Sun
4,515 million km
Gravity
1.14 × the Earth’s
Temperature
-200 °C
Moons
16
What you’re seeing
An illustration of Neptune as Voyager 2 saw it in 1989, its dark spots and bright clouds where the pictures showed them.
Named places
Great Dark Spot: A storm about the size of the Earth that Voyager 2 photographed in 1989. When the Hubble telescope looked in 1994, it was gone.
Scooter: A small bright cloud that raced round Neptune faster than the spots near it, so Voyager’s team called it the Scooter.
Small Dark Spot: A smaller storm with a bright core, also seen by Voyager 2 in 1989. Neptune’s winds, the fastest of any planet, reach about 2,000 km/h.