Friday, August 12, 2011

The dark planet

It sounds like science fiction: a planet so dark it reflects almost no light (what geeks would call a blackbody). The universe, though, seems to enjoy telling us that our science fiction is never quite weird enough to keep up with reality. TrES-2b is a gas giant, which makes it even stranger. Astronomers say it would look to us like a solid black ball with a hint of a red glow. Science fiction writers, get to work!

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