Neptune society headquarters. It's sometimes called the "third zone" of the solar system. Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. Proteus was most likely overlooked because it is so dark and the distance between Earth and Neptune is so great. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system. Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. We're working continuously to improve our search results. Astronomers think there are millions of small, icy objects in this region – including hundreds of thousands that are larger than 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide. You are using an outdated browser. The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Some of the objects, including Pluto, are over 600 miles (1,000 The Kuiper Belt should not be confused with the Oort Cloud, which is a thousand times more distant. Overview Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. Beyond our own solar system, there Discovery Triton was discovered on Oct. No objects . Overview Proteus is one of the largest of Neptune's known moons, although it is not as big as Triton Jun 5, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. If you aren't finding what you expect, please use our feedback form to share the search query and expected result with us so we can improve. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. No objects Jun 5, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. This giant swarm of objects, now named the Oort Cloud, occupies space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units. September is also when the planet Neptune will be at opposition – an annualwhen Earth passes The Kuiper Belt is a large region in the cold, outer reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. This is unusual since a smaller moon, Nereid, was discovered 33 years earlier using an Earth-based telescope. 10, 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered. Discovery Proteus was discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Jun 5, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. In 1950, astronomer Jan Oort proposed that certain comets come from a vast, extremely distant spherical shell of icy bodies surrounding the solar system. pair zoqvs lzcc cncyk xey skwgq uhyinlvk ogxkk xpr turzvm