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Astronomers have discovered the darkest known planet. The exoplanet, known as TrES-2b, reflects less than 1 per cent of light, which makes it darker than any other planet or moon.
The discovery, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made by analysing data from Nasa's Kepler spacecraft, which provides extremely precise measurements on the brightnesses of faraway stars.
'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 (CfA) told Science Daily.
TrES-2b, a gas exoplanet roughly the size of Jupiter, is around 750 light years away and was discovered in 2006 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey; hence its less-than-catchy name.
Read more here.
The discovery, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made by analysing data from Nasa's Kepler spacecraft, which provides extremely precise measurements on the brightnesses of faraway stars.
'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 (CfA) told Science Daily.
TrES-2b, a gas exoplanet roughly the size of Jupiter, is around 750 light years away and was discovered in 2006 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey; hence its less-than-catchy name.
Read more here.
