2D Puzzle of the Planet Neptune in our Solar System
750 pieces
Size when assembled: 65 cm diameter
Suitable for children from 9 years
Caution: danger of suffocation. Not suitable for children under 3 years. Small parts may be swallowed
Neptun
Neptune is the eighth and outermost known planet in our solar system. It was discovered in 1846 by the German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle based on calculations from orbital perturbations of Uranus by the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier. Neptune is an average of 4.5 billion kilometres from the Sun. From Earth, it has an apparent diameter of about 2 angular seconds. With a diameter of just under 50,000 kilometres, Neptune has almost four times the diameter of Earth and about 58 times the volume of Earth. After Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, Neptune is the fourth largest planet in the solar system. Together with Uranus, Neptune forms the subgroup of the ice giants. Due to its size, Neptune dominates the outer zone of the planetary system, which can be seen, for example, in the orbital period of some "transneptunes" such as Pluto and the Plutino group, which is about 1.5 times the orbital period of Neptune (a 3:2 orbital resonance). Of Neptune's 14 known moons, Triton is by far the largest at 2700 kilometres in diameter. The giant planet is named after Neptune, the Roman god of the sea and flowing waters. In the search for exoplanets, objects that have a similar mass to Neptune are sometimes referred to by astronomers as "Neptune-class planets" or "Hot Neptunes" in analogy to the extrasolar "Jupiters" or "Hot Jupiters". The chemical element neptunium, discovered in 1940, was named after the planet. Neptune is the only planet in the solar system that is not visible to the naked eye from Earth. Its opposition was on 2 September 2016 and shifts backwards by about 2 days each year.