True blue: Neptune only slightly deeper colour than Uranus, say Oxford scientists | Planets

It’s a colour beloved by interior designers, but it seems duck-egg blue is also splashed across our solar system, with research suggesting it is the true colour of both Uranus and Neptune.

The new work puts paid to the popular belief that Neptune has a deep blue hue, suggesting instead both planets are a similar colour – with Neptune only slightly more blue than Uranus.

“Uranus is still bland and rather boring looking, but Neptune looks fairly washed-out as well when you do the full true colour reconstruction,” said Prof Patrick Irwin, first author of the study at the University of…