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Blackest Planet Ever Found, Absorbs Nearly 100% of Light That Reaches It
Popular Science ^ | Posted 08.12.2011 at 10:11 am | By Clay Dillow
Blackest Planet Ever Found, Absorbs Nearly 100% of Light That Reaches It | Popular Science
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 its darker than coal, or any other planet or moon that weve yet discovered. Its less reflective than black acrylic paint. To summarize: its 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, were about 93 million miles from our sun), which leads to surface temperatures on TrES-2b of more than 1,800 degrees.
Thats too hot for the formation of ammonia clouds that would reflect some of that incoming radiation as they do on Jupiter. Rather, TrES-2bs 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 dont fully explain the planets extreme blackness, which is still puzzling astronomers. There's some kind of strange chemistry going on out there that even Kepler can't see.
Popular Science ^ | Posted 08.12.2011 at 10:11 am | By Clay Dillow
Blackest Planet Ever Found, Absorbs Nearly 100% of Light That Reaches It | Popular Science
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 its darker than coal, or any other planet or moon that weve yet discovered. Its less reflective than black acrylic paint. To summarize: its 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, were about 93 million miles from our sun), which leads to surface temperatures on TrES-2b of more than 1,800 degrees.
Thats too hot for the formation of ammonia clouds that would reflect some of that incoming radiation as they do on Jupiter. Rather, TrES-2bs 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 dont fully explain the planets extreme blackness, which is still puzzling astronomers. There's some kind of strange chemistry going on out there that even Kepler can't see.