Neptune
Found by arithmetic before it was found by telescope, and still the windiest place known.
Where it is right now
Neptune is in Pisces, 29.3 AU away, magnitude 7.8.
Computed for 2 August 2026, 17:00 UTC, and recomputed at least hourly. This page is cached, so treat the line above as accurate to the hour rather than to the second. The map shows the live position.
Position from astronomy-engine's VSOP87-derived series, accurate to about an arcsecond.
Facts
Every line carries the source it came from.
- Mean radius
- 24,622 kmSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Fact Sheet
- Winds
- up to 2,100 km/h, the fastest in the solar systemSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Fact Sheet
- Discovery
- 1846, predicted from Uranus's orbital residuals before being observedSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Fact Sheet
- Year
- 164.8 Earth years, one full orbit since 1846 completed in 2011Source: NASA/JPL Planetary Fact Sheet
- Orbit
- 30.07 AU average, eccentricity 0.0086Source: NASA/JPL Approximate Positions of the Major Planets (J2000)
- Sunlight
- about 1/900th of Earth'sSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Fact Sheet
Physical size
- Mean radius
- 24,622 km
- Diameter
- 49,244 km across
Orbit
Elements are heliocentric, referred to the J2000.0 ecliptic.
- Average distance from the Sun
- 30.070 AU (4,498.4 million km)
- Eccentricity
- 0.0086, almost perfectly circular
- Inclination to the ecliptic
- 1.77 degrees
- Orbital period
- 165 years
- Longitude of ascending node
- 131.78 degrees
- Argument of periapsis
- 273.18 degrees
- Mean anomaly at J2000.0
- 259.92 degrees
Family
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Catalog id neptune. 3,172 objects on the map, of which 171 are hand-authored with sourced facts.