#Neptunes lagoon full#

To Renu Malhotra, a staff scientist at Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute, these elliptical orbits have explanatory power: They suggest that Neptune- a planet with the mass of more than 17 Earths- influenced the orbits of all its diminutive neighbors. It is perfectly normal for some 300 known objects in the Kuiper belt. Astronomers now know that Pluto's orbit is strange only for a planet. While the other planets travel in circular orbits, Pluto's orbit is a peculiarly tilted ellipse. But something about Neptune's strange small neighbor, Pluto, tickled their curiosity. The bright spots in the background are stars.ДЇor decades astronomers have thought that planets remained stationary after the initial formation of the solar nebula. previous images had revealed only INCOMPLETE arcs.

#Neptunes lagoon full#

Voyager 2 's flyby in 1989 provided the first close-up of Neptune- and the first full view of its wispy rings. 'No one planet can tell us everything about the universe,' says Heidi Hammel, a senior scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, 'but Neptune seems to hold more than its share of information about the formation of our own solar system- as well as the solar systems beyond.' Astronomers now believe Neptune's gravity not only skewed the orbits of the small, distant bodies in the Kuiper belt but also affected the position of the giant gas planets. Three years later, the discovery of the Kuiper belt, a field of remote icy objects that includes Pluto, redefined Neptune as a major force in the arrangement of the entire solar system.

Neptune was literally seen in a new light, with images of a gorgeous blue orb with swirling white clouds that seemed, well, Earth-like. What it eventually sent back to Earth changed everything.

Then 11 years ago Voyager 2, its mission to Jupiter and Saturn completed, was allowed to fly by and snap a few images of Neptune. For centuries, the planetary giants - Jupiter with its distinctive red spot and Saturn with its massive rings- have been the most glamorous of the planets, while the outer orbs- Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto- have been viewed, when they've been viewable at all, as dim, remote, drab, and mysterious stepsisters.