Pitch-black exoplanet found

It probably emits the absorbed light into a different form of energy.

Electromagnetism maybe?

Nibiru probably does the same thing.

reply to post by XplanetX


A black body emits black body radiation over a very specific (black body) spectrum. For example, the light from the Cosmic Microwave Background is a near-perfect black body spectrum.

reply to post by CLPrime

Yes, and the interesting question is, where does all that energy go? Does it make the body hotter? In that case, why isn’t it emitting brightly in the infrared? What kind of process can absorb electromagnetic radiation without emitting heat?

I don’t agree with the ill-informed person who thinks our understanding of physics is so poor that it can be disproved by any passing astronomical discovery. However, there may be a genuine mystery here. We can be pretty sure the usual conservation laws aren’t being violated, so something very odd must be happening.

reply to post by Thebel


Maybe that's the HELL we keep hearing about ?

Oh, do I need a second line ?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

I'm just wondering...but are these the same folks who have said the idea of a dark planet cruising through our neighborhood is a ridiculous idea? Funny they should find another example that fits the bill in some far distant star system. Are they still so positive it's impossible to have one in this corner of the Milky Way?

They are the same folk, and the idea is still ridiculous.

An invisible body would nonetheless be detectable from its effect on the orbits of the planets and other bodies in the solar system. There is no way it could remain ‘invisible’ to gravity.

*

reply to post by InnerPeace2012

Yes, the inhabitants of the planets circling mutually distant stars that coincidentally make up a pattern that looks a bit like a dragon when seen from the unique viewpoint of planet Earth must look like Earthly reptiles as well. It makes perfect sense, in an Above Top Secret kind of way.

Maybe there's a black hole on the surface of the planet and it absorbs all light. Voilà! A black planet.

reply to post by LeTan


I was thinking of more like the creatures in the movie Pitch Black that cant stand light

Very cool.... This planet deserves a decent name!

A few names....

Anubis
Kali
Hades
Azrael (my favourite)
Sauron
Mort
Odin

reply to post by LeTan


That would be awesome! That or something a long the lines of ridick.

reply to post by InnerPeace2012


Now why did you have to derail this thread with this worn out fantasy?

This is very cool! I wonder if we had a chance to study the planet what we would find out. Also what would find us. I have a filling that there is life on this planet. Don't be a skeptic there has be something on that planet.

reply to post by ManOfGod267


I wouldn't say that exactly. It's a gas giant estimated to be slightly larger/more massive than Jupiter and is also what is termed a "Hot Jupiter" because it's orbit is only a few days and is estimated to be 0.03556 ± 0.00075 AU from it's parent star...which is also part of a binary star system.

Sounds pretty fascinating. The mysteries of the universe are so vast. We probably only understand 1% of it. We can't with full faith explain how our own moon came to being, so I'm sure there is all kinds of stuff out there that will blow our mind. The trenches of our own Oceans on this planet are alien to us. We can't for 100% certainty say that there is intelligent life down there. Too bad we (collectively) spend so much money blowing each other up, and keeping each other down instead of learning, enjoying, and exploring this wonder space we inhabit.

reply to post by Astyanax


Ironically, I answered that question in my post right above yours.

reply to post by Versa

I propose Tartarus

*

reply to post by CLPrime

Thanks. It’s just that the radiation falling on this planet (being so close to its primary and all) must be immense, and low-frequency black-body radiation is a slowish way to dissipate it. You’d think the thing would be bright blue.

Maybe there’ll be a nice fat GRB one day. Hope it isn’t pointed our way.

reply to post by Astyanax


That's why the black body spectrum gets "larger" the hotter the object gets...to dissipate the accumulating thermal energy. It's not released in one single wavelength. If that were the case, black bodies would, paradoxically, be some of the brightest objects in the universe (though, stars are bright, but for other reasons). The energy, instead, is released over a vast portion of the EM spectrum, which limits the peak intensity quite a bit.

Still, this in no way radiates all of the accumulated heat, and, as the object gets hotter, its peak black body wavelength will move up the spectrum, and the intensity of that peak will grow. It's quite possible that, at some point, the "planet" could very well become a star, assuming it has a sufficient supply of hydrogen. However, if it has no significant hydrogen supply, then it would just keep getting hotter...

Actually, thinking about it, the reason why this planet may be a near-black body is because it got so hot that its gaseous atmosphere became plasma.

reply to post by Thebel


Very cool find. With better telescopes coming online in the next decade, we will certainly be able to detect earth like planets and analyze it's atmosphere looking for oxygen, nitrogen, water etc.

I was imagining this may be a Dyson Sphere

Dyson spheres are mega-structures created by Class II civilizations. We are a Class 0 civilization

The Dyson sphere would entirely enclose a star and harvest most of the energy from it. Maybe this Dyson sphere is built around a dwarf star orbiting the main star (a binary system).

If we ever find a Dyson sphere would it not appear to us much like this discovery, but maybe bigger?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b6ec81b50129.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Nicolas Flamel


If they were to create a true and complete Dyson sphere, we wouldn't see much of anything unless it was a star in a binary system and they left the 2nd star alone. A true Dyson sphere from a type 2 would be able to utilize near 100% of the energy produced by the star. We would have nothing to observe from here.

Problem here is, as you stated, we are aren't even a type 1 on the Kardashev scale yet, so trying to resolve what higher levels could and would do is really just a best guess. I'd say it's safer to say that a type 2 would have the capability to harvest most if not all of the energy of their host star, not necessarily that they do. One of the main drawbacks to this is the insane amount of resources it would require to build the sphere. You'd essentially have to tear apart all of the planetary bodies in the system just for raw materials alone...which would leave you with another problem...where are you gonna live? Some alternatives of this method involve creating habital rings that orbit in the goldilocks zone, though they have hosts of their own problems.

I would say it would be more-likely that they would have vast solar arrays to collect massive amounts of energy with additional arrays throughout the planetary system. So, instead of a sphere to collect all the energy from the star at the expense of the star system, have collection drones spread throughout to collect massive amounts of energy from the entire system. It may not be as much as they would get if they took all of the star's output, but it's more feasible imho...especially since the sphere methods would basically be complete losses in resources whenever the star died. A Dyson sphere is not going to survive a red giant phase or supernova and viola...you've lost an entire system's resources. A type 2 would be thinking more to the future than we do today on their way to becoming a type 3.

reply to post by Dashdragon


I agree. It would be easier to build satellite arrays around the star. But if they were very advanced maybe they could live inside the shell, and if it was rotating, you would have artificial gravity. So maybe it lasts only a few billion years (the life of the star), maybe that's good enough for them?

The reason this came to mind in the first place, is the pitch-black characteristics, and the fact they detected titanium oxide, which we use to build advanced machines with.

We need more advanced telescopes to study this planet, its so interesting place. I wonder what kind of nucleus it has, solid or liquid and whats it composition is. Maybe there is huge diamond inside. And I guess there is almost no difference in temperature on its "Dark side" which never gets light since planet is tidally locked.

Its pretty hard to study "Hot Jupiters" since there is not a single one in our solar system or near, we know like nothing of them.

Characteristics for this planet:
Mass: 1,199 ± 0,052 Jupiter mass
Radius: 1.272 ± 0.041 Jupiter radius
Surface gravity: 3.284 ± 0.016 g
Orbital period: 2.47063 ± 1e-05 days
Orbit eccentricity: 0 (perfect circle)
Tidally locked

So apparently this is less dense than Jupiter. It also has stronger gravity than Jupiter (Jupiter's gravity 2,528 g).