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Neptune is the eigth and for a short period ninth planet from the sun. The farthest planet from
the sun, Pluto, has an orbit that brings it inside of Neptune's orbit for about a twenty year period. The planet Neptune, like
Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus is a gas giant. This planet was theorized before it was actually discovered in 1846 by J.G. Galle due to an anomaly
in Uranus's orbit. The planet's diameter is 49,528km or about 3.9 Earth diameters and has a mass of 17.1 Earth masses. Neptune's
orbit is 40AU away from the sun and takes 163.8 Earth years to make a complete revolution.
Neptune currently has 13 known moons, its only large moon is Triton. Triton is the only large moon in the solar system that
has a retrograde orbit, meaning it revolves around Neptune in the opposite direction of Neptune's spin. This means that the
moon was not formed with the planet. This retrograde revolution is slowly making Triton's orbit decay and it will some day
slow down enough to enter Neptune's Roche Limit where the moon will be ripped apart to contribute to Neptune's ring system.
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