The eighth planet from the Sun, Neptune was the first planet
located through mathematical predictions rather than through
regular observations of the sky. (Galileo had recorded it as a
fixed star during observations with his small telescope in 1612 and
1613.) When Uranus didn't travel exactly as astronomers expected it
to, a French mathematician, Urbain Joseph Le Verrier, proposed the
position and mass of another as yet unknown planet that could cause
the observed changes to Uranus' orbit. After being ignored by
French astronomers, Le Verrier sent his predictions to Johann
Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory, who found Neptune on his
first night of searching in 1846. Seventeen days later, its largest
moon, Triton, was also discovered.
Nearly 4.5 billion kilometers (2.8 billion miles) from the Sun,
Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 years. It is invisible to the
naked eye because of its extreme distance from Earth.
Interestingly, due to Pluto's unusual elliptical orbit, Neptune is
actually the farthest planet from the Sun for a 20-year period out
of every 248 Earth years.
Other caches in this series:
GC15YAM
Solar System Challenge GC15YAR Cowboy Sun GC15YAT Cowboy
Mercury GC15YAY Cowboy Venus GC15YB1 Cowboy
Earth / Moon GC15YB5 Cowboy Mars GC15YB7 Cowboy
Jupiter GC15YB8 Cowboy Saturn GC15YBA Cowboy
Uranus GC15YBE Cowboy Pluto
FTF
"Team Burt" Oct 4th, 2007
Placed by a Nebraskache Member