I don’t think we as a society think about Neptune as often as we should. Sure, he’s the furthest planet from the sun and can’t sustain human life, but does that mean we should push him aside like last week’s newspaper? Absolutely not!
Find a photo of him online; notice the deep blue and how the different shades melt into one another, notice the subtle bands of white. He’s worked hard to be this beautiful — it’s not easy to create yourself entirely from hydrogen. (Go ahead, let’s see you do it.)
He’s so cool he’s associated with a Roman god — Neptune, the god of the sea, that strong, swarthy chap with the trident. You wouldn’t guess Galileo once mistook him for a star. Neptune? A star?! He’s too prominent, too illustrious to be mistaken for anything but the celestial body that he is. Think about that next time you’re mooning over the moon.
Image: Simer Haer/The Cascade
