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Jupiter-Sized Alien Planet Is Darkest Ever (Barely) Seen
thebchuckster writes "The darkest alien world ever spotted by astronomers has been discovered in the outskirts of our galaxy. '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,' David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."
it's goatse
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
What's happened to /. titling?
Is it darker than #000000?
Is it that big evil thing from the Fifth Element? Do we need four stones to make it fire a a giant Laser beam at it? Is it going to make evil people leak black tar?
fear of a black planet!
The planet is apparently entirely populated by gloomy goth people, who paradoxically seem happier than ever.
Here I am, sitting here with mod points, and I'm very disappointed at the poor quality of the comment so far...
Considering how this planet is 750 light years away, and how hard it is to detect these planets, isn't it possible that this measurement is just an error of sorts, before changing planet formation theories?
That's no moon.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Maybe it's a Dyson sphere.
FTFA: "The planet in question, TrES-2b, was detected by NASA's Kepler spacecraft circumventing the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811"
Surely they mean "orbiting"? "Circling" even? But "circumventing"?
"darker'n a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night?"
Public Enemy called it!
It's like, how much more black could this be?
if you would be so close to the sun, you would be scorched black too!
I can't be the only one thinking of Giedi Prime!
It's inhabited by aliens. They have almost perfected solar power, just like the asteroid in Ender's Game.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Which is the darkest non-ailien planet?
It's also hot in infrared. Isn't this exactly what you would expect to see from a planet with a Kardashev level 1 civilisation?
Sisters of Mercy (Black Planet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Oh4aaLCFM
Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck
How would acrylic conjure up 'darkness' more than any other emulsion? (I'm sure it made sense to Kipping, I just can't figure what he based that odd view on.)
The darkest planet(s) should be the one(s) could not be detected since no light will return.
Or it didn't happen.
Good that someone final turn the spotlight and shed some light on this. Why do you turn of your lights and pull down the blinds if you have nothing to hide?
Maybe it's a red giant remnant (carbon core)?
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
I blame anthropogenic carbon emissions!
*ducks*
From the article:
Like us on Facebook TrES-2b is so hot that scientists said it emits a faint red glow, similar to a burning ember.
Where a terrible enemy slept...
Wouldn't the darkest planet ever be that one we can't see cause it's too dark?
If it's DARKNESS, it must be CHARLIE MURPHY!
Maybe it's from 2001 "All the monoliths are black, extremely flat, non-reflective rectangular solids."
I remember Arthur C. Clarke's description of the blackness quite well, I'm thinking it was written slightly better than the summaries description of black.
Unfortunately I don't have the book with me.
TFA is wrong, the planet was discovered from a ground-based observatory back in 2006: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0609335
I guess we better invest into weirding modules before it's too late :)
>> Are we talking like optical black, suitable for coating the insides of instruments like telescopes and microscopes?
> Blacker! I'm talking black knobs with black legends on a black control panel black. It's so black it's frictionless.
(shamelessly reposted from another /. discussion a few years back ;)
Hey ! You can't ! It's totally frictionless
The article first states that it's backer than coal, then goes onto say that it has a faint red glow. Which is it?
Well, we can all now see that you no nothing about Mick, Keith and the boys.
If we go to Z'ha'dum...we will die!
Black! Black! Black like the clouds of death that follow me into the forest of doom and hide in the wardrobe of darkness!
Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJxafiqHvw
Blacker than the blackest black... times infinity!
There was a manga years ago called 2001 Nights. It was a Sci-Fi anthology with a Kubrick/Clark 2001 influence.
In one of the stories a "10th Planet" is discovered in our solar system given the name Lucifer. It orbits our sun in a retrograde orbit (it goes the opposite direction of the other planets) and takes 666 years to complete an orbit. It's also the largest gas giant surpassing Jupiter. A mission to study the planet is launched and a number of tragic accidents befall the crew.
It was the first thing I thought of when I heard about this.
Great, so when do the Harvesters arrive?
Maybe it's surface is made of polished platinum.. I jest, but I swear that stuff messes with my eyes; on one hand, it's shiny, but on the other, it's dark, almost black, and seems to just suck up light.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Isn't every planet other than Earth "alien?"
ceci n'est pas un sig
but is it darker then uranus?
"It's so ... black!" said Ford Prefect. "You can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it.
It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.
Camouflage, possible cloaking device. When you exist in a big black background, and you don't want anyone to find your home world, as the song says, "Paint it Black".
Of course one has to ask what sort of species takes such drastic action to hide themselves.
Is this a case of puppeteers, or simply stealthy invaders?
We're doomed!
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
or it didn't happen
Did they name it Wesley Snipes?
...times infinity
But very few science references.
Personally, I suspect nanoscopic carbon, like fullerenes.
Little known fact: candle soot contains carbon nanotubes and fullerenes.
http://www.worldofmolecules.com/materials/fullerene.htm
Carbon nanotubes are also "The darkest substance known," and synthetic samples exhibit optical qualities similar to this planet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7190107.stm
Now then-- If the planet originally had a high-methane content atmosphere, the solar bombardment may have slowly converted the methane into C60 fullerene and hydrogen gas. Fullerenes are heavy molecules, yes-- but they can be suspended in atmosphere even here on earth in a still room as "dust". The extreme wind velocities of a planet like this one would pretty much ensure a permanent cloud of the stuff, since it would be unable to settle. (Winds that would be further driven by the extreme solar absorption the molecules would provide.)
Fullerenes are highly conductive, so I would wonder about the electrostatic activity of such an atmosphere.
Please someone correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that we've never seen any of the light reflected by a planet outside of our solar system. I thought the only methods of planet detection we currently have were to see the light it blocks from its host star, or to see the pull it has on its host star.
Oh, my, god. Becky, look at that planet. It is so big.
Yeah, it looks like one of those yellow-sun's satelite's...
But, ugh, you know, who understands those yellow suns?
Ugh, they only illuminate it because it looks like a total black hole, okay?
I mean its size, it's just so big, ugh, I can't believe it's just so round, it's like, out there, I mean, ugh, gross!
Look! It's just so... Black!
Cool post bro, highfive \o
If some day in the future we will have FTL and would be able to observe this planet being locked into a shell, we shouldn't build a ship and send it there. The Guardians would also be right about the StarFlyer.
We can find planets but, we cannot feed ours, find a better source of limitless fuel, operate a world without currency or sustain economies on programs other than war.
No wonder other planets refuse to respond to our SETI calls.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.