NASA ’s Hubble Space Telescope has found that a previously let out exoplanet is almostcompletely black . The major planet was encounter to absorb 94 percent of lightness fall upon it , draw it very unusual .
The exoplanet is call WASP-12b , located 1,400 light - years from Earth . It ’s a “ spicy Jupiter ” , which is a gas giant that orbit implausibly closely to its legion star . This planet is thought to have a temperature of 2,500 ° atomic number 6 ( 4,600 ° F ) on its daylight side . On its Nox side , it ’s about half as red-hot .
Using Hubble , a squad of scientists led by McGill University , Canada , and the University of Exeter , UK , find that the planet had an albedo – or reflectiveness – of just 0.064 . This is sorry than asphalt , and makes the planet two times less musing than our own Moon , which has an albedo of 0.12 .
WASP-12b was discovered back in 2008 , orbiting its Sun - similar lead towards the constellation of Auriga . It has since been meditate legion clock time , but this is the first time we ’ve got a grasp on what it looks like .
" We did not look to find such a dark exoplanet , " said lead researcher Taylor Bell of McGill University and the Institute for Research on Exoplanets in Montreal , Quebec , Canada , in astatement . " Most live Jupiters muse about 40 percent of starlight . "
The planet is tidally locked to its star , so one side is in perpetual daylight and the other sempiternal darkness . uranologist deduced its semblance by watching as the planet passed behind the adept . This let them spot how much light is being reflected by the day side , but observations showed there was fundamentally no reflected light . This means the day side is engage all the starlight hit it .
The cause of this is thought to be that cloud can not take form on the day side of the major planet . It gets so hot that atomic number 1 molecules are demote down into nuclear hydrogen , which absorb more of the incoming light .
WASP-12b orbits just 2 million mile away from its star , completing an orbit in a day . Its propinquity not only makes it extremely red-hot , but it has also stretch the planet into an egg frame . If you could see the planet up near , it would appear cerise because of its gamey temperature , similar to a glowing metal .
