Black Holes are no longer the premier astronomical objects in the universe that have something against reflecting light. News broke a few hours ago that astronomers have discovered a big honking, Jupiter-sized gas giant they've named TrES-2b a mere 750 light years away from Earth. Which is like right down the block considering our sun basically lives in the same building as us being 93 million miles away from Earth (scope people, scope). So why is this guy like a black hole? Well TrES is the darkest exoplanet that astronomers have ever happened upon. NASA's Kepler spacecraft suggest TrES reflects less than one percent of the sunlight thats hits it. This is crazy because the star TrES orbits is only 3 million miles away from it (remember: ours is only 93 million miles away from us). TrES-2b's temperature averages out at around 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (gotdamn!) Space guys say there's no indication that the planet's retardedly hot atmosphere being riddled with light-absorbing chemicals isn't the direct reason why it fails to reflect serious amounts of light, they don't really know what's responsible for TrES being exceptionally dark. Princeton University professor David Spiegel who's paper is also responsible for revealing the planet's existence says that "However, it's not completely pitch black. It's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove." So no, we can't live there. The chances of life existing there is very, very impossible. So don't get any ideas (i'm looking at you Richard Branson & George Lucas). Spotted at PC Magazine.
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