Of the many planets in our Milky Way solar system, Neptune is not the most discussed. Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in our Solar System. Neptune, like Uranus, is an ice giant, a subclass of giant planets, because they are smaller and have higher concentrations of volatiles than Jupiter and Saturn. In the search for exoplanets, Neptune has been used as a metonym: discovered bodies of similar mass are often called "Neptune", just as scientists call various extrasolar bodies "Jupiter". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune's atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of hydrocarbons and perhaps nitrogen, but contains a higher proportion of "ice" such as water, ammonia, and methane. However, its interior, like that of Uranus, is composed mostly of ice and rock, which is why Uranus and Neptune are normally considered "ice giants" to emphasize this distinction. Traces of methane in the outer regions partly explain the planet's blue appearance. The planet's mantle is equivalent to about 10-15 Earth masses and is rich in water, ammonia and methane. As is customary in planetary science, this mixture is called frozen even though it is a hot, dense fluid. This fluid, which has high electrical conductivity, is sometimes called ammonia-water ocean. The mantle may consist of a layer of ionic water in which water molecules break down into a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper into superionic water in which the oxygen crystallizes but the hydrogen ions float freely in the interior of the oxygen lattice. at a depth of 7,000 km, conditions could be such that methane decomposes into diamond crystals that rain down like hailstones. Ultra-high-pressure experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the base of the mantle may be an ocean of liquid carbon with floating solid “diamonds.” Neptune's internal structure resembles that of Uranus. Its atmosphere makes up about 5 to 10% of its mass and extends perhaps 10% to 20% toward the core, where it reaches pressures of about 10 GPa, or about 100,000 times that of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing concentrations of methane, ammonia and water are found in the lower regions of the atmosphere. Neptune's climate is characterized by extremely dynamic storm systems, with winds reaching speeds of nearly 600 m/s (2,200 km/h; 1,300 mph), nearly reaching supersonic flow. More typically, by monitoring the movement of persistent clouds, wind speeds have been shown to vary from 20 m/s in the eastward direction to 325 m/s in the westward direction. At the cloud tops, prevailing winds vary in speed from 400 m/s along the equator to 250 m/s at the poles. Most winds on Neptune move in a direction opposite to the planet's rotation. The overall wind pattern showed prograde rotation at high latitudes compared to retrograde rotation at lower latitudes. The difference in flow direction is believed to be a "skin effect" and not due to deeper atmospheric processes. At 70° S latitude, a high-speed aircraft travels at a speed of 300 m/s. The relative "hot spot" is due to Neptune's axial tilt, which exposed the south pole to the Sun for the last quarter of Neptune's year, or about 40 Earth years. As Neptune slowly moves to the opposite side of the Sun, the south pole will be darkened and the north pole brightened, causing the shift in the release of.