Explanation: Gliding silently through the outer Solar System, the Voyager 2 spacecraft camera captured Neptune and Triton together in crescent phase in 1989. The elegant picture of the gas giant planet and its cloudy moon was taken from behind just after closest approach. It could not have been taken from Earth because Neptune never shows a crescent phase to sunward Earth. The unusual vantage point also robs Neptune of its familiar blue hue, as sunlight seen from here is scattered forward, and so is reddened like the setting Sun. Neptune is smaller but more massive than Uranus, has several dark rings, and emits more light than it receives from the Sun.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Neptune - Neptun - Triton Publikacii so slovami: Neptune - Neptun - Triton
Sm. takzhe: Okruzhennyi kol'cami ledyanoi gigant Neptun Polumesyacy Neptuna i Tritona Kogda Mars vstrechaetsya s Neptunom Dva chasa do Neptuna Proletaya okolo sputnika Neptuna Tritona Neptun ot Voyadzhera Despina, sputnik Neptuna Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>