Neptune

Neptune is second farthest planet. It lies thousand of millions of kilometres away from Earth, at the edge of the Solar System. Neptune is a gas giant, very like Uranus. Pluto is a tiny ice ball, smaller than our moon.

Neptune has a similar make-up to its twin planet, Uranus. It has an atmosphere made up mainly of hydrogen, together with some helium. Beneath this there is a huge, deep, hot ocean of water and liquid gases, including methane. In the centre, there is a core of rock, which may be about the same size as Earth.

Neptune is a lovely blue colour, rather like Earth. This colour comes about because the atmosphere contains a gas called methane. Methane absorbs the red colours in sunlight, and makes the light coming from Neptune’s atmosphere appear blue. Dark spots that sometimes appear in Neptunes atmosphere are violent storms.