Neptune Trivia

1. In terms of the overall size (not mass) of the planets, where does Neptune rank?

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: Fourth Largest

It is interesting to note that although it is the fourth largest in terms of diameter, it holds a higher density, and more mass than its often-called twin, Uranus.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: Blue

The outer layers of Neptune's atmosphere are formed by clouds of methane ice. Methane absorbs red light, thus accounting for the planet's blue appearance.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: Voyager 2

The probe made its closest approach to the planet on August 25, 1989. Against mission expectations, it failed to discover any moons.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: About 1.17 times greater than Earth

Assuming you could stand on the surface of Neptune, you would be able to walk, feeling only slightly encumbered by the additional 17% gravitational pull.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: Hydrogen

Neptune has an atmosphere with a scale height of close to 20km. Its primary component is hydrogen, accounting for between 77-83% of the atmosphere. The second biggest component is helium (16-22%). Methane is the third largest component (1-2%). There are also traces of hydrogen deuteride and ethane.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: Its existence and position were mathematically calculated

John Couch Adams and Urbain LeVerrier both noticed discrepancies with the recently discovered planet Uranus, and so surmised that another planet must be beyond it. Astoundingly, they were successfully able to predict its exact location within a reasonable degree of error.

From Quiz Twenty Questions on Neptune

Answer: 49,500 kilometers

Neptune is the smallest of the gas giants and the farthest gas giant from the Sun.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: 30 AU

Given that it is 1 AU from the Sun to Earth, going outwards it is just less than 1.5 AU from the Sun to Mars, and 5 AU from the Sun to Jupiter. The distances then start to become really large: from the Sun to Saturn varies from 9-10 AU and from the Sun to Uranus from 18-20 AU. It is 30 AU from the Sun to Neptune. To give you a sense of perspective, imagine that the distance from the Sun to Neptune is a 100-yard football field. The Sun is a little smaller than a golf ball on this scale at one end of the field, and Neptune, about a tenth of that size on the other goal line. The Earth, which would be smaller than a flea, is located between he 1-yard and 2-yard line at the Sun's end of the field. Suffice it to say that it is a long, long way to Neptune!

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: The official name of Neptune's Great Dark Spot

GDS, of course, stands for Great Dark Spot. 89 refers to the year it was first observed, 1989.

From Quiz Twenty Questions on Neptune

Answer: 17 times the Earth's mass

Although Uranus is larger, Neptune's mass is greater than Uranus.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: 2100 to 2400km/hr

Since there had only ever been one visit of any kind from Earth to Neptune by 2015, experts have had to rely on the data from that single visit, and their own observations via the most powerful telescopes available. Different calculations all place the winds of Neptune around 2100 to 2400km/hr. Try flying your Cessna through that!

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: Triton

Triton is enormous compared to all of the other moons of Neptune. With a radius of 1,530 km, it is about 80% of the size of our Moon (1,737 km). By comparison, the second-largest of Neptune's moons, Proteus, has a radius of jut 210 km. Triton accounts for 99.5% of the total mass of all 13 of Neptune's moons. Triton is the seventh-largest satellite in the Solar System, although it is almost exactly half the size of the largest, Jupiter's Ganymede, which has a radius of 2,634 km. Triton is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit -- i.e. it orbits in a direction opposite to its planet's rotation. When measured in 1989, Triton was found to be the coldest known place in the Solar System with estimated temperature of -235 C. Of the alternatives, Callisto is the second-largest of Jupiter's moons, Titania is the largest moon of Uranus, and Proteus is Neptune's second-largest moon.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: Rock and ice

It is widely believed that the same applies to Uranus, which is why it and Neptune are often referred to as ice giants rather than gas giants.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: Blue

Depending on when you stare at Neptune, it may be described as azure blue, light-blue, or bright blue. Of course, you are viewing the planet through a telescope or binoculars on the Earth's surface, which means you must also penetrate our atmosphere. The gases in the atmosphere create light-spectrum filters, so the color you see is not the true color of the object. Photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which has the benefit of not being additionally filtered by Earth's atmosphere, reveals Neptune to appear as blue-green.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: Sea gods

Since Neptune is the Roman God of the sea, its moons are named after lesser sea-related Gods. Its largest moon, Triton, is named after the Greek sea god who was the son of Poseidon. Of the alternatives, the moons of Jupiter that were discovered before 2004 are named after lovers and favorites of Zeus. Those discovered after 2004 are named after the daughters of either Jupiter or Zeus. The moons of Uranus are named after the characters of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: It is denser than Uranus

Neptune is 18% more massive than Uranus. The latter is about 14 times as massive as Earth, while the former is over 17 time as massive.

From Quiz Twenty Questions on Neptune

Answer: 16.1 hours

Jupiter rotates in 9.8 hours, Saturn at 10.2 hours and Uranus in 17.9 hours.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: Five

The five rings named by the end of 2015 are so named for people who have made significant discoveries about Neptune. They are named Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams. One of those names you may recognize... Francois Arago was a 19th Century French Astronomer, whose last name graces the 135 Bronze disks implanted in the ground through Paris, following the Rose Line, and highlighted in book and movie The Da Vinci Code. He was well known for his work with optics and theories of light, and work on the longitudinal lines and global calculations. There is a sixth ring, very faint, and which has not been named at the time of writing. The orbit of Galatea, a moon of Neptune, is believed to have created it.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: 15 times

The earth has a surface area of about 510,000,000 square km. Neptune's surface area is about 7,618,300,000 sq km: about 15 times the size of Earth. To put this figure into context, Earth is the equivalent to the size of Canada if Neptune is the size of all the land on Earth. In the equivalent comparison using the entire surface of the Earth (70% of which is covered with water) inflated to the size of Neptune, Earth would then be about twice the size of Russia.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: Galle

The rings of Neptune, which were the fourth such system to be discovered, are named after astronomers who discovered important traits of the planet. They were first detected in the 1960s, but were indisputably confirmed by Voyager 2's 1989 flyby.

From Quiz Twenty Questions on Neptune

Answer: 1846

Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: 14

Fourteen moons of Neptune have been discovered by December 2015. Its largest is Triton, named after King Triton, often thought of as the alter ego of Neptune, or in other myths as the Son of Neptune. It was discovered October 10, 1846, only a few weeks following the discovery of the planet. The moon orbiting farthest from Neptune is called Neso, and takes roughly 26 years to traverse around the planet. Since Neptune is the Roman God of the Sea, so far, all of the moons discovered have been named after lesser water deities under both the Roman and Greek pantheons.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: 1846

Neptune was first seen by Galileo in 1612, but he mistook it for a star. In 1821, French astronomer Alexis Bouvard was studying the orbit of Uranus and he hypothesized the existence of an eighth planet in the solar system. This was confirmed 25 years later by three astronomers, Frenchman Urbain Le Verrier, Germany's Johann Gottfried Galle and England's John Couch Adams. The official date of discovery of Neptune is September 23, 1846. It remained the furthest planet from the Sun until Pluto was discovered in 1930, and then regained that status in 2006 when Pluto was reclassified as a 'dwarf planet'.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: 17 days

Triton is one of the largest known moons in the Solar System. It is thought to have once been a planet in its own right, but it was captured by Neptune's gravity.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: Retrograde Orbit. It revolves around Neptune against Neptune's other moons

Because of the retrograde orbit, and composition, Triton is believed to be a captured satellite from the Kuiper Belt. The only bodies in the solar system described as gas giants are the four planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Also, I guess you could refer to the Sun as a gas giant, because it is a great big ball of burning hydrogen gas. Triton has a diameter of about 2705.2km making it the largest moon in orbit of Neptune. By 2015, the smallest identified moon of Neptune is S/2004N1. Its diameter is estimated between 16km and 20km. The largest known moon in the solar system is Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter. The orbit of Triton is slowly decaying. In the next couple billion or so years Neptune's gravity will tear Triton apart.

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: 165

In 2011, Neptune completed its first complete orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 1846. It takes Neptune 60,190 Earth days (164.79 years) to make a single complete revolution of the Sun. I doubt anyone on Neptune complains about how quickly Christmas comes around! The alternatives are the approximate orbit times of other bodies in the Solar System -- Jupiter takes roughly 12 Earth years (11.86 exactly) to orbit the Sun, Uranus orbits every 84 Earth years (84.32), and Pluto takes almost exactly 264 Earth years.

From Quiz Neptune, the Sea-king Star

Answer: Higher internal temperature

Due to the higher density of Neptune, this allows for a much hotter core, which in turn causes a more extreme atmosphere. However, as of at least the 1990s, Uranus began to exhibit more internal heating, resulting in its atmosphere becoming more active.

From Quiz Twenty Questions on Neptune

Answer: Triton

Triton is an interesting satellite. It's orbit is retrograde around Neptune and it has a tenuous atmosphere. Triton must have formed elsewhere in the Solar System and then been "captured" by Neptune. Eventually, Triton will either break up or crash into Neptune since its orbit is being lowered by tidal interactions with Neptune.

From Quiz Ten Interesting Facts About Neptune

Answer: About 164-165 years

By comparison, Pluto (no longer considered a planet, alas) has a journey around the Sun of 248 years. While Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, takes a mere 88 days. The Earth takes...well...a year!

From Quiz Neptune -- Furthest Planet from the Sun

Answer: Voyager 2

By the time Voyager 2 reached Neptune, it took just over four hours for a signal to travel from the spacecraft back to Earth. It passed within 4,400 km of Neptune's atmosphere before passing close to Triton later the same day. Six new moons were discovered and Neptune was shown to have more than one ring and a seriously active weather system. Voyager 1 had earlier performed a similar fly-by of Saturn. The New Horizons probe was scheduled to fly close to Pluto in 2015.

This is category 20560
Last Updated Dec 28 2024 5:54 AM

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.