Neptune: measured geometry, rotation model, imagery still pending

Measured facts

Classification

Ice giant planet

Mean radius

24,622 kmPublished mean radius stored as renderer geometry.

Mean diameter

49,244 km

Reference shape

Oblate reference ellipsoid · flattening 0.0171Equatorial 24,764 km, polar 24,341 km. No terrain displacement or cloud-height model.

Mean radius in Earth radii

3.86

Appearance

Atmospheric provider foundation · assets pending

Observation epoch

No observational appearance integrated

What you are looking at

A reference oblate ellipsoid is built from published equatorial and polar radii, and IAU_NEPTUNE orientation is evaluated at the selected epoch.

Cloud patterns on Neptune are epoch-specific, so COSMOS will not draw a generic banded appearance. The disk stays a labelled proxy.

Its position, like every other planet here, is interpolated from the recorded Horizons archive inside declared coverage, with extrapolation rejected.

Distance, scale and light time

Distances here are computed from the shipped JPL Horizons state archive, sampled once per day across its declared coverage (2020-01-01 00:00 TDB through 2040-01-01 00:00 TDB). Because both bodies move on different orbits, the separation changes constantly; the figures below include the dates at which the extremes occur.

Distance from Earth

28.984 AU · 4,335,925,273 kmAt the recorded snapshot epoch 2026-08-29 00:00 TDB, one-way light time 4.02 hours.

Distance from the Sun

29.879 AU · 4,469,811,729 kmComputed in the same epochs and frame (Earth-centred ecliptic J2000.0 / ICRF).

Delivery and camera limits

COSMOS stops the camera at 1.08 mean radii for Neptune. This body has no observational imagery integrated yet, so only an educational-geometry limit applies.

Appearance status

Atmospheric provider foundation · assets pending

Renderer provider id

neptune-visual-v1

Closest permitted approach

1.08 mean radiiEducational geometry limit only; no observational surface imagery is integrated for this body yet.

Rotation model

IAU_NEPTUNE — pck00011 (2022-12-27), IAU 2015 Neptune modelSource: https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/pck/pck00011.tpc

Geometry

oblate-reference-ellipsoidReference oblate ellipsoid; no terrain displacement and no cloud-height model

Provenance

Appearance provenance is carried by the provider at runtime, not added by the page: no appearance layer is registered for this body, so only geometry and position are claimed.

Category

artist-educational-representationNo provider-supplied appearance record exists yet; this is the registry classification.

Registry source

NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics

Limitations COSMOS discloses

• Appearance incomplete; no observational surface or atmosphere claimed
• No atmospheric observation is integrated; no selected-date cloud pattern exists in the renderer.
• Triton, the largest moon, is not yet a navigable destination.
• No ring geometry is drawn; Neptune’s rings are not part of the current slice.
• Position is interpolated inside 2020-01-01 00:00 TDB through 2040-01-01 00:00 TDB; requesting an epoch outside that window is rejected instead of extrapolated.