Strange planet is blacker than coal

[Srelex]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Stran ... l_999.html

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.

The strange world, TrES-2b, is a gas giant the size of Jupiter, rather than a solid, rocky body like Earth or Mars, astronomers said.

It closely orbits the star GSC 03549-02811, located about 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation of Draco the Dragon.

"TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world," David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a press release issued by Britain's Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

First spotted five years ago, TrES-2b races around its star at a distance of just five million kilometres (three million miles).

This is scorchingly close when compared to Earth's 150-million-km (93-million-mile) distance from the Sun and Jupiter's 778 million kms (483 million miles).

So fierce is the heat that the exoplanet's atmosphere is cooked to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit).

Signatures from its atmosphere point to the presence of light-absorbing chemicals like vaporised sodium and potassium or titanium oxide.

But none of these substances can explain the planet's darkness, which is more extreme than any planet or moon in our own Solar System.

"It's not clear what is responsible for making this planet so extraordinarily dark," said David Spiegel of Princeton University.

"However, it's not completely pitch black. It's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove."

More than 500 extrasolar planets have been identified since 1995.

TrES-2b, like our Moon, is believed to be locked by gravitational tide, presenting only one face to its star.

The study, published in the RAS journal Monthly Notices, used NASA's orbiting Kepler spacecraft to make the observations.

Let imaginations run riot...

[OmegaChief]

If we find a planet that's pure white as well, especially in the same system, then we can start to worry.

[Chirios]

If we find a planet that's pure white as well, especially in the same system, then we can start to worry.

hahaha, nice.

[TeufelIV]

...Took me a minute to get that joke.

That is a very interesting find. Kind of bizarre occurrence.

As for imagination wise. It is deliberately done to help conceal the planets surface.

[derp vader]

Kinda reminded me of this: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/f ... -nano.html

How cool would it be if it turned out to be artificially created, with the black stuff being a material in super-absorbent solar panels coating the planet's outer surface.

Bet's on it's a let down.

[CaptainChewbacca]

If we find a planet that's pure white as well, especially in the same system, then we can start to worry.

hahaha, nice.

I'm sorry, I don't get the reference.

[Iroscato]

If we find a planet that's pure white as well, especially in the same system, then we can start to worry.

hahaha, nice.

I'm sorry, I don't get the reference.

Me neither. May we be enlightened?

[Lord of the Abyss]

If we find a planet that's pure white as well, especially in the same system, then we can start to worry.

hahaha, nice.

I'm sorry, I don't get the reference.

I assumed it just was a joke about "black planet = evil, white planet = good".

I've also heard jokes about how "they've discovered the Beast Planet" and various The Fifth Element jokes.

[Iroscato]

Thanks for reminding me to watch that film again tonight
My eyes were boggling at the statistics of this planet. Just 5 million kilometres away from its sun, 1000 degrees C, glowing red hot like a fucking oven element, and the size of Jupiter. I am not a religious guy, but I believe we have truly discovered Hell, my comrades...

[NecronLord]

Nothing so mundane as hell. There are stranger things in heaven and earth than are deamt of in your philosophy my friend!

[OmegaChief]

I assumed it just was a joke about "black planet = evil, white planet = good".

Both that and a Billards joke, we've found planet 8 Ball, but it's planet Cue ball we really have to worry about.

[Fixed formatting ~ NL]

[Guardsman Bass]

I still think HAT-P-2b is weirder. A Jupiter-sized planet twice as dense as Earth, with 24 times the Earth's surface gravity.

[Iroscato]

Nothing so mundane as hell. There are stranger things in heaven and earth than are deamt of in your philosophy my friend!

And there are stranger things in my dreams than are played out in heaven and earth
According to the article, its locked in its orbit, so only one side is facing its sun all the time. What would have caused this to happen?

[Lord of the Abyss]

According to the article, its locked in its orbit, so only one side is facing its sun all the time. What would have caused this to happen?

Tidal forces, like the Moon around the Earth. It orbits the star very closely, so it suffers high tidal forces, and so is tide-locked to its star. The near parts of the planet feel stronger gravity than the farther parts; that created drag early in its history when it spun relative to the star and over millions of years that drag slowed then stopped its rotation relative to the star.

[Iroscato]

According to the article, its locked in its orbit, so only one side is facing its sun all the time. What would have caused this to happen?

Tidal forces, like the Moon around the Earth. It orbits the star very closely, so it suffers high tidal forces, and so is tide-locked to its star. The near parts of the planet feel stronger gravity than the farther parts; that created drag early in its history when it spun relative to the star and over millions of years that drag slowed then stopped its rotation relative to the star.

Thanks, I knew it was the same system as the moon and earth, but I couldn't remember exactly.

[PeZook]

Thanks for reminding me to watch that film again tonight
My eyes were boggling at the statistics of this planet. Just 5 million kilometres away from its sun, 1000 degrees C, glowing red hot like a fucking oven element, and the size of Jupiter. I am not a religious guy, but I believe we have truly discovered Hell, my comrades...

Venus is more like Hell than that one. It has the excellent combination of deadly surface temperatures, toxic and corossive atmosphere, crushing ground level pressure and fucking rains of sulphuric acid.

While that black planet sound kinda creepy, Venus has the full Hell Package

[Iroscato]

Thanks for reminding me to watch that film again tonight
My eyes were boggling at the statistics of this planet. Just 5 million kilometres away from its sun, 1000 degrees C, glowing red hot like a fucking oven element, and the size of Jupiter. I am not a religious guy, but I believe we have truly discovered Hell, my comrades...

Venus is more like Hell than that one. It has the excellent combination of deadly surface temperatures, toxic and corossive atmosphere, crushing ground level pressure and fucking rains of sulphuric acid.

While that black planet sound kinda creepy, Venus has the full Hell Package

Hmmm...I think the black planet would be worse. It's far hotter, the gravity would be much, much higher, plus it would have the same pressure problems as Venus. Oh, and also it GLOWS RED HOT. So there

[Feil]

Unfortunately, we found Hell in 1993, on Phobos, of all places. You might say that, as far as their chances of being hell are concerned, both Venus and TrES-2b are... DOOMed.

I really hope it's not just a measurement error - mistaking some of the reflected radiation for blackbody radiation, for instance, or something else similarly mundane. There could be a good deal to be learned about chemistry and the interface of light with layers of atmosphere, here, if the measurements are accurate.

There's no way you could accomplish something like this with polarization effects, is there? You'd still get reflection off of the polarizing interface...

[Oni Koneko Damien]

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.

Slight nitpick and question: If the planet's orbiting a different star, should we really call the light that hits it 'sunlight'?

[Iroscato]

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.

Slight nitpick and question: If the planet's orbiting a different star, should we really call the light that hits it 'sunlight'?

I believe so, a sun is a generic term for a star IIRC. I've heard it being used for other stars.

[Isolder74]

It might be a reference to The Cluster in Lexx

[Oni Koneko Damien]

It might be a reference to The Cluster in Lexx

With all the talk going around about Hell, I was more tempted to throw a reference out to season 3's Fire and Water.

[Lord of the Abyss]

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.

Slight nitpick and question: If the planet's orbiting a different star, should we really call the light that hits it 'sunlight'?

I believe so, a sun is a generic term for a star IIRC. I've heard it being used for other stars.

Especially in reference to the star a particular planet orbits. And really, it's a useful distinction to make, since the calling what hits a planet from a nearby star "starlight" is technically true but fails to distinguish between light intense enough to heat a planet red hot, and the far dimmer light of other stars.