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There ’s a satellite the size of it ofJupiterwhipping around a star 466 light - age off from Earth , and it might be the color of plums , or dying embers or , well … just about anything else .
investigator do n’t know for sure , because themassive , gassy worldis one of the darkest satellite astronomers have ever detected . accord to a Modern paper posted April 17 in the preprintjournal arXiv , the major planet know as WASP-104b is " darker than charcoal grey " and may immerse up to 99 percent of the light its local star sheds upon it . [ 9 Most Intriguing Earth - Like major planet ]
This is not an image of the newfound dark planet, which swallows up too much light to be visible to human observers.
" From all the dark planets I could find in the lit , this is top five - ish , " study generator Teo Mocnik , a researcher at Keele University in Staffordshire , England , toldNew Scientist . " I recall top three . "
( The darkest major planet discovered so far is the pitch - black exoplanet TrES 2B , or Kepler-1b , located about 750 clear - yr away , which sop up more than 99 percent of the light that hits it . )
Mocnik and fellow did not discover WASP-104b ( it was firstdescribed in 2014 ) , but they did bring its impressive dark to visible light after poring over data leave by theKepler Space Telescope .
Because they could not really see WASP-104b directly , the research worker studied the planet via thetransit method , which ask valuate the moment dimming of a aloof star as a planet passes in front of it . Other observations — like the subtle gravitational wobbling WASP-104b inflict on its host star — help Mocnik and his colleagues describe the mysterious exoplanet in detail . ( Their paper has yet to be take by a compeer - reviewed journal . )
Planets like WASP-104b are calledhot Jupiters , meaning they ’re about as monumental as Jupiter but with one scorching construction : Hot Jupiters orbit exceedingly close to their host stars , resulting in searing control surface temperature . In the case of WASP-104b , the planet is so close to its star that it complete a full orbital rotation once every 1.76 day .
Counterintuitively , the planet ’s proximity to its sun might hold the key to the earth ’s utmost dark . LikeEarth ’s moon , WASP-104b is tidally interlock , meaning one face of WASP-104b is always facing its legion star , with the polar one always face aside . As a result , one side of the major planet experience permanent Clarence Day , while the other side is trapped in dateless dark .
The dark of the planet ’s nightside is easy to understand . The dayside of the planet , meanwhile , is believably too hook in prima radiation for clouds or methamphetamine hydrochloride to ever shape , the investigator wrote . Not only do clouds and icebrighten a planetby reflecting light outward , but they can also mold a form of ceiling above light - engross elements in the satellite ’s atmosphere .
WASP-104b is reckon to have a heavyset , fuzzy atmosphere rich inatomic sodiumandpotassium , which can absorb many colouring in the optical spectrum .
The solution is a satellite that absorbs somewhere between 97 percent and 99 percentage of all the light source that hits it . But while WASP-104b might seem blacker than ember , it likely has a distinct underlying color that Earthbound observers just ca n’t comprehend . Incoming solar radioactivity probably causes the planet to glow — maybe sorry purple like a bruise or red like an coal , Mocnik told New Scientist — but from our tooshie 466 light - years by , we just ca n’t secernate .
Originally published onLive Science .
