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Os Cangaceiros
13th August 2011, 22:37
An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy.

The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft (http://www.space.com/11279-nasa-alien-planets-image-1235-exoplanets.html)detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation Draco.

The researchers found this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it darker than any planet or moon seen up to now. [ The Strangest Alien Planets (http://www.space.com/159-strangest-alien-planets.html)]

"It's just ridiculous how dark this planet is, how alien it is compared to anything we have in our solar system," study lead-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told SPACE.com. "It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with. It's bizarre how this huge planet became so absorbent of all the light that hits it."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44113835/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TkYBlL8UW18

kinda interesting

ÑóẊîöʼn
13th August 2011, 22:44
I'm thinking it's completely blanketed in clouds of hydrocarbon soot.

OhYesIdid
13th August 2011, 23:39
Whoa, so all exploration of it would have to be Tron-like neon-lighted? I atually had an idea for a soot-covered planet once, funny how things work out.

Ocean Seal
13th August 2011, 23:51
"However, it's not completely pitch black," co-author David Spiegel of Princeton University said in a statement. "It's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove."
I don't get this part. Is it something like excited electrons but across large parts of the planet? That's crazy (in the awesome way).

ÑóẊîöʼn
14th August 2011, 00:16
I don't get this part. Is it something like excited electrons but across large parts of the planet? That's crazy (in the awesome way).

No, it's what things do when they get hot, they emit light.

The Vegan Marxist
14th August 2011, 07:42
mGLhx3oiU3M

black magick hustla
14th August 2011, 09:16
I don't get this part. Is it something like excited electrons but across large parts of the planet? That's crazy (in the awesome way).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body_radiation

ColonelCossack
15th August 2011, 21:49
If I went there I would get vertigo like I do when I go under the sea on google earth.