Temperature On Neptune

Now that Pluto has been demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet, Neptune is now the most distant planet in the solar system. It is 2.8 million miles from the Sun or 30 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun. Its distance has also made it, until recently, one of the most mysterious planets in our system. In fact, most of what we know about the planet comes from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which passed by Neptune in 1989, although this has since been supplemented by ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope observations.

As expected, Neptune is one of the coldest planets in the solar system. The planet is an ice giant, meaning it doesn’t have a solid surface; its ‘surface’ is where the planet’s clouds meet space. At this point, the temperature of Neptune can reach as low as 55° Kelvin (or 50° above absolute zero) although the mean temperature of the planet is 73° K (-200° Celsius). However, temperatures at the South Pole are -10° C warmer than the rest of the planet because it is currently titled towards the Sun.

Once you travel down into the interior of the planet, the clouds condense into a liquid layer surrounding a central core made of ice and rock. At the core, in contrast to the surface, temperatures reach 7000° C, which is as hot as the surface of the Sun. The temperature differences between the surface and the core results in powerful wind storms, which can hit as high as 2100 km/hr, making them the fastest in the system.

The atmosphere of Neptune is composed mainly of helium and hydrogen, with large quantities of ice mixed in. Because of this, and increasing pressures and temperatures as you descend towards the core, some scientists have speculated that there could be a layer of the planet where there are vast oceans of water. However, conditions have to be just right and they may not yet exist on the planet until a billion years from now when Neptune is cool enough.

33 Responses to “ Temperature On Neptune ”

  1. carl November 11th, 2010 at 10:33 pm

    it is 2.8 billion miles from the sun

  2. lily January 29th, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    yes this is finally something i need

  3. joe March 10th, 2011 at 2:35 am

    finally ive been lookin every where.

  4. charlie March 21st, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    me to!

  5. Brenda March 31st, 2011 at 7:09 pm

    this planet is ugly right belen

  6. Brenda March 31st, 2011 at 7:19 pm

    i love neptune ???????????????????????????

  7. Brenda March 31st, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    neptune is the best planet

  8. lol May 11th, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    brenda u have no life…

  9. watever September 2nd, 2011 at 12:47 am

    hahaha……..these commets crack me up

  10. lls September 16th, 2011 at 1:06 am

    I love neptune? too

  11. Selena Gomez October 6th, 2011 at 3:07 pm

    Neptune is my favorite

  12. Justin Beiber October 6th, 2011 at 3:09 pm

    I would hate to live on neptune. :( lol

  13. natalia February 3rd, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    haha, i wrote this in 2012 and yeah neptune is awesome!!!:D

  14. Christal February 12th, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    This really helped me out on project

  15. hannah montana February 22nd, 2012 at 2:22 am

    I love neptune and I finally found a website that has all the imformation for my report ill totally get a 100

  16. Darien March 1st, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    that was really good to research some people say it just a planet who care we can’t live on it

  17. Unknown Sponge March 1st, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    Dhiz iz mah homewurk lol wait is my project

  18. hi im sexy March 9th, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    *2.8 BILLION miles from the sun

  19. hi im sexy March 9th, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    neptune in amazing defo my fave planet!

    WHAT SORT OF SAD PERSON HAS JUTIN BEIBER AS THEIR NAME?!!?

  20. BruceLee March 20th, 2012 at 6:55 am

    I’m doing a project on Neptune

  21. Ruth March 22nd, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    I love Neptune but would hate to live on it! :-)

  22. amber doudrick April 5th, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    i love neptune!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  23. best friends April 18th, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    cool neptune

    of coures

  24. Bob May 3rd, 2012 at 3:18 am

    This website is great. Thank you creators! :)

  25. Sandra Nsiah May 3rd, 2012 at 1:20 pm

    Neptune is not a good place to live

  26. Kaso May 18th, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    best planet evr cuz its beautiful

  27. sammy May 25th, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    PLUTO IS A PLANET……so stop saying tht its not bc it is

  28. sammy May 25th, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    PLUTO IS A PLANET……so stop saying tht its not bc it is

  29. kaleigh September 28th, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    i lov eneptun

  30. Aisha October 4th, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    my fav color is blue and neptune is blue woop woop :)

  31. ice cream man December 20th, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    pluto is not a planet, sammy!!!!!!!!

  32. lisathepirate January 17th, 2013 at 8:58 pm

    Thanks, I can use this :D . I would love to live on Neptune, I’ve heard the people are less annoying there.

  33. Ashleyyy April 29th, 2013 at 12:21 am

    Thanks. This helped a lot in to getting information on Neptune’s temperature. :) THANKS AGAIN !