World
Neptune
Neptune is a world in the solar system, about 49 244 km across.
Where it is right now is on the live 3D map.
Key facts
- Diameter
- 49 244 km
- Goes round
- The Sun
See it from here
Not by eye: Neptune is magnitude 7.7 to 7.9, too faint to see without help. Strong binoculars or a telescope show it as a small blue disc.
How the map draws it
Lit as a camera exposed for its own sunlight would show it · seen from far off it is a light at its computed brightness: the glow is how a camera records a point too bright to resolve · its rings are at their measured distances, drawn 20 times wider, 10 times more opaque and far brighter than they are so that they show: the real ones are faint threads as dark as charcoal · in the Film look the five arcs of its outer ring are drawn as Voyager 2 saw them in 1989, going round at their measured speed; where they are round the ring today is not computed, and two of them have since faded or moved.