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[11]
radius of 24,764 km is nearly four times that of Earth.
Neptune, like Uranus, is an ice giant, a subclass of giant
planet, because they are smaller and have higher
[73]
concentrations of volatiles than Jupiter and Saturn. In
the search for exoplanets, Neptune has been used as a
metonym: discovered bodies of similar mass are often
[74]
referred to as "Neptunes", just as scientists refer to
various extrasolar bodies as "Jupiters".
Internal structure

See also: Extraterrestrial diamonds

Neptune's internal structure resembles that of Uranus. Its
atmosphere forms about 5 to 10% of its mass and extends
perhaps 10 to 20% of the way towards the core. Pressure
5
in the atmosphere reaches about 10 GPa, or about 10
atmospheres. Increasing concentrations of methane,
ammonia and water are found in the lower regions of the
[30]
atmosphere.

Illustration of the physical component of Neptune's interior and

its surroundings in false colours
The mantle is equivalent to 10 to 15 Earth masses and is
[2]
rich in water, ammonia and methane. As is customary in
planetary science, this mixture is called icy even though it
is a hot, dense supercritical fluid. This fluid, which has a
high electrical conductivity, is sometimes called a water–
[75]
ammonia ocean. The mantle may consist of a layer of
ionic water in which the water molecules break down into
a soup of hydrogen and oxygen ions, and deeper down
superionic water in which the oxygen crystallizes but the
hydrogen ions float around freely within the oxygen lattice.
[76]
At a depth of 7,000 km, the conditions may be such
that methane decomposes into diamond crystals that rain
[77][78][79]
downwards like hailstones. Scientists believe that
this kind of diamond rain occurs on Jupiter, Saturn, and
[80][78]
Uranus. Very-high-pressure experiments at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest that the
top of the mantle may be an ocean of liquid carbon with
[81][82][83]
floating solid 'diamonds'.

The core of Neptune is likely composed of iron, nickel and

silicates, with an interior model giving a mass about 1.2x
[84]
that of Earth. The pressure at the centre is 7 Mbar (700
GPa), about twice as high as that at the centre of Earth,
and the temperature may be 5,400 K (5,100 °C; 9,300 °F).
[30][31]

Atmosphere
 Combined colour and near-infrared image of Neptune, showing
bands of methane in its atmosphere, and four of its moons,
Proteus, Larissa, Galatea, and Despina

Duration: 40 seconds.

0:40
A timelapse video of Neptune and its moons

[85]
Neptune's cloud cover over three decades (1994–2023).
False colour image based on data from WFPC2 and WFC3
instruments of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Bands of high-altitude clouds cast shadows on Neptune's lower

cloud deck. The colour is exaggerated to show the clouds more
clearly.

At high altitudes, Neptune's atmosphere is 80% hydrogen

[30]
and 19% helium. A trace amount of methane is present.
Prominent absorption bands of methane exist at
wavelengths above 600 nm, in the red and infrared portion
of the spectrum. As with Uranus, this absorption of red
light by atmospheric methane is part of what gives
[86]
Neptune its faint blue hue, which is more pronounced
for Neptune's due to concentrated haze in Uranus's
[87][88]
atmosphere.

Neptune's atmosphere is subdivided into two main

regions: the lower troposphere, where temperature
decreases with altitude, and the stratosphere, where
temperature increases with altitude. The boundary
between the two, the tropopause, lies at a pressure of 0.1
[25]
bars (10 kPa). The stratosphere then gives way to the
−5 −4
thermosphere at a pressure lower than 10 to 10 bars
[25]
(1 to 10 Pa). The thermosphere gradually transitions to
[89]
the exosphere.

Models suggest that Neptune's troposphere is banded by

[85]
clouds of varying compositions depending on altitude.
The upper-level clouds lie at pressures below one bar,
where the temperature is suitable for methane to
condense. For pressures between one and five bars (100
and 500 kPa), clouds of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide
are thought to form. Above a pressure of five bars, the
clouds may consist of ammonia, ammonium sulfide,
hydrogen sulfide and water. Deeper clouds of water ice
should be found at pressures of about 50 bars (5.0 MPa),
where the temperature reaches 273 K (0 °C; 32 °F).
Underneath, clouds of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide may
[90]
be found.

High-altitude clouds on Neptune have been observed

casting shadows on the opaque cloud deck below. There
are high-altitude cloud bands that wrap around the planet
at constant latitudes. These circumferential bands have
widths of 50–150 km and lie about 50–110 km above the
[91]
cloud deck. These altitudes are in the layer where
weather occurs, the troposphere. Weather does not occur
in the higher stratosphere or thermosphere. In August
2023, the high-altitude clouds of Neptune vanished,
prompting a study spanning thirty years of observations by
the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based
telescopes. The study found that Neptune's high-altitude
cloud activity is bound to Solar cycles, and not to the
[85][92][93]
planet's seasons.

Neptune's spectra suggest that its lower stratosphere is

hazy due to condensation of products of ultraviolet
[25][30]
photolysis of methane, such as ethane and ethyne.
The stratosphere is home to trace amounts of carbon
[25][94]
monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. The stratosphere
of Neptune is warmer than that of Uranus due to the
[25]
elevated concentration of hydrocarbons.

For reasons that remain obscure, the planet's

thermosphere is at an anomalously high temperature of
[95][96]
about 750 K (477 °C; 890 °F). The planet is too far
from the Sun for this heat to be generated by ultraviolet
radiation. One candidate for a heating mechanism is
atmospheric interaction with ions in the planet's magnetic
field. Other candidates are gravity waves from the interior
that dissipate in the atmosphere. The thermosphere
contains traces of carbon dioxide and water, which may
have been deposited from external sources such as
[90][94]
meteorites and dust.

Colour

Neptune's atmosphere is faintly blue in the optical

spectrum, only slightly more saturated than the blue of
Uranus's atmosphere. Early renderings of the two planets
greatly exaggerated Neptune's colour contrast "to better
reveal the clouds, bands and winds", making it seem deep
blue compared to Uranus's off-white. The two planets had
been imaged with different systems, making it hard to
directly compare the resulting composite images. This was
revisited with the colour normalised over time, most
[88][97]
comprehensively in late 2023.

●
Original 2-colour (orange-green) NASA/JPL image from
[98]
Voyager 2, with exaggerated colour
●

Colour recalibrated in 2016 (Justin Cowart), preserving

[99]
some enhancement for contrast
●

Colour recalibrated in 2023 (Patrick Irwin),

[100]
approximating the true colour
Magnetosphere
Neptune's magnetosphere consists of a magnetic field that
is strongly tilted relative to its rotational axis at 47° and
offset of at least 0.55 radius (~13,500 km) from the
planet's physical centre—resembling Uranus's
magnetosphere. Before the arrival of Voyager 2 to
Neptune, it was hypothesised that Uranus's sideways
rotation caused its tilted magnetosphere. In comparing the
magnetic fields of the two planets, scientists now think the
extreme orientation may be characteristic of flows in the
planets' interiors. This field may be generated by
convective fluid motions in a thin spherical shell of
electrically conducting liquids (probably a combination of
[90]
ammonia, methane and water), resulting in a dynamo
[101]
action.

The dipole component of the magnetic field at the

magnetic equator of Neptune is about 14 microteslas (0.14
[102]
G). The dipole magnetic moment of Neptune is about
17 3 3
2.2 × 10 T·m (14 μT·RN , where RN is the radius of
Neptune). Neptune's magnetic field has a complex
geometry that includes relatively large contributions from
non-dipolar components, including a strong quadrupole
moment that may exceed the dipole moment in strength.
By contrast, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn have only relatively
small quadrupole moments, and their fields are less tilted
from the polar axis. The large quadrupole moment of
Neptune may be the result of an offset from the planet's
centre and geometrical constraints of the field's dynamo
[103][104]
generator.
Measurements by Voyager 2 in extreme-ultraviolet and
radio frequencies revealed that Neptune has faint and
weak but complex and unique aurorae; however, these
observations were limited in time and did not contain
infrared. Subsequent astronomers using the Hubble
Space Telescope have not glimpsed the aurorae, in
[105]
contrast to the more well-defined aurorae of Uranus.
[106]

Neptune's bow shock, where the magnetosphere begins to

slow the solar wind, occurs at a distance of 34.9 times the
radius of the planet. The magnetopause, where the
pressure of the magnetosphere counterbalances the solar
wind, lies at a distance of 23–26.5 times the radius of
Neptune. The tail of the magnetosphere extends out to at
least 72 times the radius of Neptune, and likely much
[103]
farther.

Climate