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The long orbital period of Neptune means that the seasons last for forty Earth years. [109] Its sidereal rotation period (day) is roughly 16.11 hours. [ 12 ] Because its axial tilt is comparable to Earth's, the variation in the length of its day over the course of its long year is not any more extreme.
Venus rotates retrograde with a sidereal day lasting about 243.0 Earth days, or about 1.08 times its orbital period of 224.7 Earth days; hence by the retrograde formula its solar day is about 116.8 Earth days, and it has about 1.9 solar days per orbital period.
The other type of commonly used "rotation period" is the object's synodic rotation period (or solar day), which may differ, by a fraction of a rotation or more than one rotation, to accommodate the portion of the object's orbital period around a star or another body during one day.
The radio instruments on board found that Neptune's day lasts 16 hours and 6.7 minutes. Neptune's rings had been observed from Earth many years prior to Voyager 2 's visit, but the close inspection revealed that the ring systems were full circle and intact, and a total of four rings were counted. [4] Voyager 2 discovered six new small moons ...
Known affectionately to scientists as the "boring billion," there was a seemingly endless period in the world's history when the length of a day stayed put. The time when a day on Earth was just ...
The exact length has been variously defined as either that of a solar day or of a sidereal day. [1] [2] [3] Astronomical days were historically used by astronomers (in contrast most commonly to solar days), but since the Industrial Revolution this usage has generally fallen out of favor, in order to avoid confusion with more conventional ...
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Earth is about to pluck a second moon from an asteroid belt — but we only get this mini-moon for 57 days. It's an asteroid about the size of a school bus, at 35 feet long, and it has a typical ...