Coal-Black Exoplanet That Is Dark and Glowing Dubbed As 'Hot Jupiter' Discovered

Researchers discovered the galaxy's darkest planet, an extraterrestrial world blacker than coal. TrES-2b, a giant the size of Jupiter, is the world in question.

It was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft orbiting the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811, located 750 light-years distant in the constellation Draco.

According to Space.com, the researchers discovered that this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight it receives, making it the darkest planet or moon ever discovered.

Experts Find Darkest Ever Coal-Black Exoplanet

Time Magazine said Hot Jupiters, astronomers have long assumed, should be relatively dark. Jupiter has a largely hydrogen-based atmosphere with light-reflecting clouds of frozen ammonia and other compounds. TrES-2b is mainly hydrogen as well, but it simmers at a sizzling 1,800 degrees since it's just 3 million miles from its star - more than 160 times closer than Jupiter is to the sun.

At extreme temperatures, solid substances such as sodium and potassium evaporate to become gases, subsequently dispersed very thinly. The atmosphere contains a million hydrogen atoms for every molecule of potassium or sodium. However, these molecules are so effective at absorbing light that the planet reflects far less light than you'd anticipate, even under the strong glare of the nearest star.

The most perplexing aspect about TrES-2b is that, according to what scientists believe they know about hot Jupiters, there shouldn't be enough potassium or sodium to make this planet as dark as it seems. Researchers believe there may be an oversupply of them, or other compounds, such as titanium oxide, are involved. However, getting it into the high atmosphere would be difficult. It's truly a puzzle.

(Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)
Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet - a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it blacker than coal or any planet or moon in our solar system.

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Gaseous Sodium, Titanium Oxide Blamed For Dark Exoplanet

According to current computer simulations, hot-Jupiter planets-gas giants that orbit very near their stars could be as dark as Mercury, reflecting roughly 10% of the sunlight that touches it.

TrES-2b, on the other hand, is so black that it barely reflects 1% of the starlight that reaches it, implying that the present models may need to be tweaked, according to Kipping.

What precisely is making the new planet's atmosphere so black if the latest study's observations are accurate?

Study lead author David Kipping told National Geographic that this darkness might be generated by a tremendous amount of gaseous sodium and titanium oxide. But it's more probable that there's something strange there that specialists haven't considered.

TrES-2b might represent a new kind of exoplanet, which Kipping and his colleagues aim to verify using Kepler, which has already discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system.

Meanwhile, the new exoplanet's darkness proposes a catchier name for TrES-2b, according to Kipping. "Erebus," the deity of darkness in ancient Greece, would be an apt nickname.

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