The Distance and Journey from Earth to Neptune: Exploring the Farthest Planet

KOMPAS.com – Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun and the farthest planet from Earth.

At an average distance of 4.5 billion kilometers, Neptune is 30 astronomical units from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth.

With this distance, sunlight takes 4 hours to reach Neptune.

Meanwhile, Neptune is 4.3 billion km from Earth. At its furthest distance, Neptune can be about 4.7 billion km from Earth. This occurs when the planets are on different sides of the Sun from each other.

Also read: What would a Neptune-sized planet showered with metal look like?

Travel from Earth to Neptune

According to Cool Cosmos, the journey from Earth to Neptune takes 12 years and 5 days. The Voyager 2 spacecraft launched on August 20, 1977 and reached Neptune on August 24, 1989.

According to NASA, Voyager 2 traveled these 12 years at an average speed of 19 km per second to reach Neptune, which is 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Voyager observed Neptune almost continuously until October 1989.

NASA’s Voyager 2 is the first space probe to observe the planet Neptune. Voyager 2 passed about 4.9 km above Neptune’s north pole. After five hours, Voyager 2 passed about 40,000 km from Neptune’s largest moon, Triton.

Also read: Why is the planet Neptune blue?

Neptune discovery

Neptune’s great distance from Earth makes it the last full-sized planet to be discovered. Neptune was found using a mathematical formula, rather than through a telescope.

Astronomers have noticed that the newly discovered Uranus has some unexplained orbital oddities.

Reporting from Space, between 1845 and 1847, John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier independently calculated the orbit of Neptune. Several astronomers began to search for a proposed planet.

On September 23, 1846, Neptune was finally found within one degree of Le Verrier’s prediction and 12 degrees of Adams’ position.

Also read: The clearest appearance of the planet Neptune, photographed by the James Webb Telescope

Previously, Neptune was discovered in 1612 and 1613 by Galileo Galilei. Unfortunately, the Italian astronomer made the observations when Neptune was just starting to move backwards because planets far from Earth sometimes appear to be moving backwards when Earth passes them in their orbit.

The great distance to Neptune made the motion too small to be observed by Galileo’s early telescopes, leading to errors in its characterization.

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2023-08-01 02:30:00
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