What Is the Big Blue Planet?

The Big Blue Planet is a nickname given to the planet Neptune. It should not be confused with the Blue Planet, which is the nickname given to the planet Earth.

Orbit and Rotation

It takes Neptune 164.79 years to orbit the sun and 16.11 hours to complete a full rotation on its axis.

Size

Neptune is 30,601 miles in diameter. About 60 Earths could fit inside of Neptune.

Sun & Moons

Neptune is almost 2.8 trillion miles away from the sun. It has 13 known moons as of 2009. The largest moon, Triton, orbits backwards and is moving closer to Neptune. It is predicted that when the two collide (in 10 to 100 million years), Neptune will have rings like Saturn.

Weather

Neptune is the windiest planet in the solar system. Winds on Neptune can reach 1,200 miles per hour.

What Makes it Blue?

Neptune got its nickname, the Big Blue Planet, from the methane gas that makes up the planet and gives it a blue hue.