The weather forecast on Neptune calls for storms, storms and more storms. Cold winds will whip through blue methane clouds at more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) per hour. The eighth planet from the Sun, Neptune is a cold and distant world.
The gas giants, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter, are located in the outer reaches of the Solar System. Dust in the solar nebula that formed the planets about 4.5 billion years ago was rich in rocky materials and in ices of methane, ammonia, and water.
Neptune and Uranus have cores that are similar in size to Jupiter and Saturn, but their total masses are much smaller. They probably formed more slowly and did not capture as much hydrogen and helium. Neptune may still be in the process of formation. (Image Right: Neptune, Courtesy of NASA)
