Reports: Neptune Getting Colder, Scientists Still Searching for Explanation

Scientists expressed that Neptune, the most distant planet in the solar system, is getting colder, and they couldn't find real explanation for such cooling down, a new study cited by Popular Mechanics magazine said on Wednesday.

The study which is a result for 20 years of observing the dark blue planet revealed the temperature of Neptune's stratosphere fell by 14-degree Fahrenheit, and there were some changes like the Earth's seasonal changes.

According to the observations of the international team that included Chile’s European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and Gemini South telescope; Hawaii’s Subaru Telescope, Keck Telescope, and Gemini North telescope; as well as NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

Like Earth, Neptune has seasonal changes on the planet, but each season lasts for 40 years because the planet is so far away from the sun.

The planet took 165 Earth-years to complete its orbit around the sun, so the conducted studies observed only a half of one season.

“This change was unexpected. Since we have been observing Neptune during its early southern summer, we would expect temperatures to be slowly growing warmer, not colder,” Michael Roman, an astrophysicist at Leicester University in the United Kingdom, and a co-author on the new paper said.