Today's Forecast: Windy, Wild and Weird
Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 2,000 km/h (1,200 mph) - close to the top speed of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. Earth's most powerful winds hit only about 400 km/h (250 mph).

No Need for Sunscreen
Neptune is so far from the Sun that high noon on the big blue planet would seem like dim twilight to us. The warm light we see here on our home planet is roughly 900 times as bright at sunlight on Neptune.

Who You Calling Little?
Even though Uranus and Neptune are much smaller than our solar system's two other giant gas planets, you could still pack nearly 60 Earths inside each. Some storms in Neptune's clouds are as big as Earth.

Nowhere Land
Trying to land on Neptune is a really bad idea. Like the other three giant planets, It is a big ball of gas which gradually becomes a hot liquid well below the clouds. There's nothing on which to land. Anyone foolish enough to drop below the cloud tops would be torn by intense winds, frozen by super cold temperatures and eventually smashed by the sheer weight of the atmosphere above, which, by the way, is poisonous to humans.

Singin' Those Methane Blues
Even though it is only a small part of the atmosphere, methane gas is what gives Neptune its blue hue. Methane absorbs red light so when we look at Neptune, all we see is blue that is not absorbed.

Wrong Way Moon
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, has a weird, backward orbit that has it inching closer to Neptune each year. When the two finally collide, the moon will be shredded into beautiful rings that may rival those of Saturn. Don't wait up, though. The collision won't occur for another 10 to 100 million years.