Located about 750 light-years away in the constellation Draco, this Jupiter-sized gas giant reflects less than 1% of the starlight that hits it. If you could somehow see it up close, it would appear as a near-perfect void—a ball of nothingness hanging in space. "It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with," said astronomer David Kipping. "It's bizarre how this huge planet became so absorbent of all the light that hits it."
by sco_cap
36 Comments
I dub thee Planet Vantablack
A.k.a. Planet Smell the Glove
That’s so crazy. That’s how dark I need my room to be at night when I’m trying to sleep.
They ruled it out as being a small blackhole?
(*sorry I don’t click links I don’t recognize on reddit*)
But have they looked at my heart?
An entire planet made of astrophage
“Black as midnight, black as pitch, blacker than the foulest witch”
It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.
Call it planet “None More Black”
If it’s nearly completely dark then how did they find it?
It’s Z’ha’dum I would guess
Obligatory “nobody tell Anish Kapoor” comment
So what you’re telling is that it’s great place to take the kids on holiday?
Seems relevant: https://youtu.be/rZHwGnGrm_k?si=K1-tMxwNr7O-XKIv
Ah, the dark planet, I am sure Trump will be getting a call from Mr. Shadow any moment and will sell us all out.
Sadly, I don’t think Korben Dallas will be able to save us this time 😔
My edgey high school goth self would have worshiped this planet.
How did they find my soul?
Solar panels. They are sucking up electricity.
I’m betting bitcoin farming. The people that made the AI that made the solar panels are all dead. Because of the solar panels.
That’s where we need to go
I’ve seen enough Sci-Fi movies. It’s probably an alien civilization that’s trying to hide itself.
Everyone making puns. No one pointing out that they don’t know why this happens. I DO know that if i wanted to make interstellar sign i was here without alerting gthe entire dark forest, this would be a decent idea.
Darker than a black hole? I guess not. So how can it be the darkest object that has ever been discovered?
There’s a great Public Enemy album joke in here somewhere but I’m not clever enough.
Isn’t that also an indicator of a Class 1+ Civilization? 100% of the energy on the planet is used. Earth is supposed to be somewhere around 0.7
Nitpick: black holes are darker unless black hole is not considered as an object.
Not darker than my mental health right now haha….ha
This seems like the planet from the book Shroud!
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky seems like it’s based on this planet. What if TrES-2b is actually a terrestrial planet and we had to try landing on it? What horrors would we find in the dark?
That is quite bizarre indeed. In my uneducated guess that means either 3 things:
1. The planet is made up of purely vantablack/any other heavily absorbing material. (Likely this)
2. There is some unknown process happening there causing this effect. (Very likely this)
3. Some alien civilizaton trying to min max their energy production. (Unlikely but exciting)
Maybe it’s just been redacted?
Its surface is covered entirely in black and red edgy original characters.
Is it made of chocolate so dark that light cannot escape its surface?
Of course it’s in Draco. It’s the Slytherin homeworld.
How do they see it if its so dark,
What’s it made out of though?
Alright Fantasy and SciFi writers, you know what to do. Get to it.
Really talk, what would this look like in a night sky? Would we be able to detect besides realizing that stars would seem to disappear in a semi regular pattern?