News Release Archive:

News Release 87 of 885

July 12, 2011 01:00 PM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2011-19

Neptune Completes Its First Circuit Around The Sun Since Its Discovery

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	Neptune
Object Description:	Planet
Distance:	Neptune has a diameter of roughly 30,800 miles (49,600 kilometers) at the equator.
Dimensions:	The semi-major axis of Neptune's orbit about the Sun is 30.06 astronomical units (roughly 2.8 billion miles or 4.5 billion kilometers).

About the Data

Data Description:	This image was created from HST data from proposal 12675: K. Noll, Z. Levay, M. Livio, C. Christian, H. Bond, L. Frattare, M. Mutchler, T. Borders, and W. Januszewski (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI).
Instrument:	WFC3/UVIS
Exposure Date(s):	June 25-26, 2011
Exposure Time:	36 minutes
Filters:	F467N (46nm), F631N (63nm), and F845M (84nm)

About the Release

Credit:

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Release Date:

July 12, 2011

Color:

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using three different filters. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

F467N (46nm)	blue
F631N (63nm)	green
F845M (84nm)	red/orange

Orientation/Scale: