Darkest known exoplanet

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Bericht 13-08-'11, 16:50

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Darkest known exoplanet

Darkest Known Exoplanet: Alien World Is Blacker Than Coal


Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet -- a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant known as 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.


The new work appears in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.



"TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world," said astronomer and lead author David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).



In our solar system, Jupiter is swathed in bright clouds of ammonia that reflect more than a third of the sunlight reaching it. In contrast, TrES-2b (which was discovered in 2006 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey, or TrES) lacks reflective clouds due to its high temperature.


Lees verder: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/...10811105115.htm


Bron: ScienceDaily
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