Skip to main content

The Darkest World

The Darkest World: Scientists Discover 'Darth Vader' Planet

 The distant exoplanet TrES-2b, shown here in an artist's conception, is darker than the blackest coal. It refuses to give back light. Why? That's a mystery. 
The distant exoplanet TrES-2b, shown here in an artist's conception, is darker than the blackest coal. It refuses to give back light. Why? That's a mystery.
David A. Aguilar /CfA
The polarities of darkness and light have been central to human cultural imaginings since our origins.
In the 5th century B.C. there was Zoroastrian religion, based on the eternal battle between darkness (evil) and light (spiritual purity). In the modern world we have the mythic conflict between Luke Skywalker in his white tunic and his black-shrouded, fallen father, Darth Vader. Given our penchant for pulling the world apart into this kind of dichotomy, it is, perhaps, no wonder that the recent discovery of the darkest of dark planets has made news.
A few weeks ago, two astronomers announced the discovery of TrES-2b via the Kepler spacecraft. The planet is a so-called "Hot Jupiter" — a large gas giant orbiting extremely close to its sun-like star (the whole system is about 750 light years away from us).
What makes TrES-2b so remarkable is its refusal to give back light. The scientific word for reflectivity is albedo. The Earth reflects about 37 percent or 0.37 of the light it receives from the sun. That is why we present such a beautiful bright blue face to the universe.
TrES-2b is another story entirely. It bounces back less than 1 percent (0.01) of the light it receives from its star. That means the planet is blacker than coal. Seen from space, TrES-2b would barely be visible.
It is not clear yet why TrES-2b is so dark. It may be that the intense heat from the nearby star has formed strange, light-absorbing compounds in the planet's atmosphere.
"It's a mystery as to what's causing it to be so dark," co-discover David Kipping told Space.com. "There's a good chance it's a chemical we haven't even thought of yet."
A world darker than coal, darker than night and darker than the heart of wickedness. You can provide your own metaphor, analogy or back story if you want.
One of the great beauties of science is the way it lets us discover how much richer the world is than our imagination might have conceived. Then our imaginations find their own uses for these discoveries, making the world we find our own.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elaborate Neanderthal Structure Found

Human May 28, 2016 05:45 PM ET Elaborate Neanderthal Structure Found Neanderthals built some of the world's earliest constructions, which were just found deep in a French cave. Circular heated structures built by Neanderthals have been discovered deep inside a cave in France and are now among the world's oldest known human-made constructions, a new study has found. The structures, dated to around 176,000 years ago and described in the journal Nature, provide evidence that Neanderthals were clever about using fire, had complex spatial organizational abilities, and explored at least one extensive cave system. They additionally indicate that humans began occupying caves much earlier than previously thought; until now the oldest formally proven cave use dated back only 38,000 years (Chauvet). The site where the constructions were found -- Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France -- was only just...
Post a Comment
Read more

DNA Captured From 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician

History May 28, 2016 03:28 PM ET DNA Captured From 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Analysis of the ancient man's DNA reveal he had European ancestry. Researchers have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician, showing the ancient man had European ancestry. This is the first ancient DNA to be obtained from Phoenician remains. Known as “Ariche,” the young man came from Byrsa, a walled citadel above the harbor of ancient Carthage. Byrsa was attacked by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus “Africanus” in the Third Punic War. It was destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C. 2,700-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Discovered Ariche’s remains were discovered in 1994 on the southern flank of Bursa hill when a man planting trees fell into the ancient grave. Analysis of the skeleton revealed the man died between the age of 19 and 24, had a rather robust physique and was 1.7 meters (5’...
Post a Comment
Read more