Blackest Planet Ever Found, Absorbs Nearly 100% of Light That Reaches It

[n2doc]

By Clay DillowPosted 08.12.2011 at 10:11


TrES-2b, the Blackest Planet We've Ever Seen David A. Aguilar (CfA)

Kepler has found the darkest known planet in universe--a Jupiter-sized exoplanet some 750 light-years away that is so black that it reflects just one percent of the light that reaches it. TrES-2b is so black that it’s darker than coal, or any other planet or moon that we’ve yet discovered. It’s less reflective than black acrylic paint. To summarize: it’s really, really black.

But TrES-2b is not completely black. It emits an extremely faint red glow, like that of a hot ember. And it turns out that heat is the main culprit behind this darkest of dark planets. TrES-2b orbits its star at a distance of just 3 million miles (by comparison, we’re about 93 million miles from our sun), which leads to surface temperatures on TrES-2b of more than 1,800 degrees.

That’s too hot for the formation of ammonia clouds that would reflect some of that incoming radiation as they do on Jupiter. Rather, TrES-2b’s atmosphere is made up of things like vaporized sodium, potassium, and titanium oxide--things that actually compound the problem by absorbing heat. But even these don’t fully explain the planet’s extreme blackness, which is still puzzling astronomers. There's some kind of strange chemistry going on out there that even Kepler can't see.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/darkest-known-planet-universe-absorbs-nearly-100-light-reaches-it

[drm604]

1. Very interesting. n/t

[electropop]

2. A gigantic cinder.

Something like a super-sized Earth, after we've roasted ourselves in CO2.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Wow--now maybe we know something about the conditions that go into

creating the brains of Republicans, which also contain extreme heat and emit no light.

[snagglepuss]

13. LOL.That's priceless.

I opened this thread as I had hoped for more insight into this odd phenomena I recently read about. I hit the jackpot.



:rofl:

[Richardo]

4. Public Enemy was right!

[Recursion]

9. I am afraid!

[formercia]

5. Black Body Radiation

At 1800 degrees, it's putting out a lot of Infrared Radiation

[Cleita]

6. Sounds like a failed star to me. n/t

[mopinko]

7. not particularly relevant but interesting.

or maybe not. but.

i am a chicago white sox fan. the team color is black. in '05, when we won the series, there were 2 single (night) games that were not scheduled, that we had to win, a make up game and a tie breaker. they were played at home. since they were last minute games, the tickets were sold nearly exclusively to the home town fans.
the team put out the call for fans to wear their black. they called it a black out. the fans responded. there were only a couple of speckles of color, and very little white in the stands. it was the weirdest thing i have ever seen.
you could almost see the light from the poles flow into the stands and die. even the pictures of it in the papers seemed to suck up light. i'll never forget that one.

this is an interesting find, but i wish they wouldn't do things like photoshop a pic of jupiter to make their point. need a good art director there.

[FogerRox]

8. 2nd Generation Death Star, Stealth Star, Alliance agents were known to have sabotaged

its propulsion system. It was abandoned left to drift closer to the sun in the system it was built.

Very cool OP, KnR

[Sancho]

16. link :)

http://www.galacticempiredatabank.com/DeathStar.html

[VWolf]

10. Wow, they found Cheney's heart n/t

[kmla]

11. I think this planet is composed of the socks that disappear from dryers...

... which are then teleported to this planet.

I hypothesize there is a sister planet that is composed mainly of striped tube socks and tan argyle socks that will soon be discovered.

:D

[Ian David]

12. This is what Hot Black Desiato made his space ship from. n/t

[Ready4Change]

14. Inhabitants now burning tar sands.

That would explain it to me.

[bananas]

15. Dyson Planet nt