Darkest exoplanet found to date

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techstepgenr8tion
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13 Aug 2011, 12:16 am

I saw this at work and thought it was interesting:
http://www.space.com/12612-alien-planet ... epler.html

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Fnord
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13 Aug 2011, 12:18 am

1800-degree surface temperature?

Balmy.

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Ashuahhe
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13 Aug 2011, 2:00 am

It's as dark as the midnight sky :O

Reindeer
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13 Aug 2011, 2:27 pm

Ashuahhe wrote:

It's as dark as the midnight sky :O

Darker

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SammichEater
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13 Aug 2011, 4:27 pm

This is why the space program isn't a waste of money. I want to go there, dangit.

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13 Aug 2011, 4:30 pm

Cool!

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techstepgenr8tion
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13 Aug 2011, 5:03 pm

Reindeer wrote:

Ashuahhe wrote:

It's as dark as the midnight sky :O

Darker

Dark enough to make Sekou Toure blush - if he were alive to see it today.

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naturalplastic
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14 Aug 2011, 7:09 am

Ofcourse its dark.

Its scorched from being so close to its sun.

Aspie_SE10
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14 Aug 2011, 7:48 am

Dumb question, but does the exoplanet rotate on its axis or is it like Mercury, which doesn't?

naturalplastic
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14 Aug 2011, 11:50 am

Aspie_SE10 wrote:

Dumb question, but does the exoplanet rotate on its axis or is it like Mercury, which doesn't?

The article says that its "beleived to be tidally locked, with the same face always facing the star like the earth's moon always has the same face towards earth".

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16 Aug 2011, 11:01 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Aspie_SE10 wrote:

Dumb question, but does the exoplanet rotate on its axis or is it like Mercury, which doesn't?

The article says that its "beleived to be tidally locked, with the same face always facing the star like the earth's moon always has the same face towards earth".

Sweet, so toasty and freezing as well.

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16 Aug 2011, 6:56 pm

Interesting, the planet is dark because it hardly reflects any light. It's also pretty hot, so it radiates something akin to black body radiation.

Scandium
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16 Aug 2011, 7:05 pm

So does that mean there are spots on the border between the light and the dark side where the temperature is not too high or low?

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16 Aug 2011, 7:59 pm

Scandium wrote:

So does that mean there are spots on the border between the light and the dark side where the temperature is not too high or low?

Yes, That would be at the terminator and it isn't very wide.

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16 Aug 2011, 8:15 pm

If it has an atmosphere, that would circulate the heat around.

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techstepgenr8tion
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16 Aug 2011, 8:20 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Scandium wrote:

So does that mean there are spots on the border between the light and the dark side where the temperature is not too high or low?

Yes, That would be at the terminator and it isn't very wide.

ruveyn

I think they took some major artistic license with the painting - ie. if its darker than a midnight sky obviously its not striped black and red-orange but rather, if I'm picturing this right, its that black all over - but not quite 'pitch' black because of a very subtle, really barely pereceptible, red glow from beneath. To me that glow says its perhaps a gas planet with a black atmosphere where, unlike Jupiter with clouds thickening to chemical sleet to slush, to thicker slush, to a molten core - this thing just goes from thick black clouds to molten surface.

For the suggestion that this could be the old core of a red/brown dwarf - for its odd characteristics it wouldn't surprise me too much.

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