Current Events

  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

Neptune's Web


These are links to other great web sites about Neptune. But beware: you don't want to get caught in Neptune's Web! Don't stay away from Windows to the Universe for long! Click for full size

NASA's Neptune Page

Neptune A simple page with images and animations.

Neptune's Ring System Everything you always wanted to know about Neptune's Rings.

Nine Planets: Neptune

NSSDC Neptune Photo Gallery

StarDate Online: Neptune

Voyager Home Page

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Science, Evolution, and Creationism

How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable....more

Neptune's Moons and Rings

Neptune has // Call the moon count function defined in the document head print_moon_count('neptune'); moons. As is the case with all of the gas giant planets in our Solar System, it also has a series of...more

An Overview of Neptune's Interior

The Giant planets do not have the same kind of structure inside that the terrestrial planets do. Their evolution was quite different than that of the terrestrial planets, and they have much more gas and...more

The Poles of Neptune and Its Moons

The South Pole of the planet Neptune is unusual in several ways. Triton, Neptune's largest moon, also has interesting features at its poles. Like Earth, Neptune's spin axis (which defines the locations...more

An Overview of Neptune's Atmospheric Composition

The atmosphere of Neptune is very similar to that of Uranus, and unlike that of Saturn and Jupiter. On Jupiter and Saturn, the atmosphere is mostly composed of the simple molecules hydrogen and helium....more

The Origin of an Atmosphere

There are four ideas for the origin of a planetary atmosphere. Those four ideas are: 1. that the planet-elements of which a planet was made decomposed and released the atmosphere, 2. that the atmosphere...more

Neptune's Great Dark Spot of 1989

Unlike Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the Great Dark Spot of Neptune is thought to be a hole in the methane cloud deck of Neptune. The white clouds shown in the picture are above the "hole". In many images...more

Evolution of Neptune's atmosphere, page 5

On this scale you can see that the "rocky" materials such as Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Nickel, and Lead, that the terrestrial planets are made of can condense out of a very hot nebula, but ice will not...more

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