Strangest planets 1#

Strangest planets

Illustration by David A. Aguilar

This universe of ours is a vast, wonderful and a frightening place. We're discovering bizarre and unusual planets, like one which is largely made up of diamonds and another that’s oozing with poison. It was hard to pick just a few of these remarkable planets. After some time thinking, I've decided to do a series about the strangest planets that exist.
Let's start this off with a planet that was a miracle find, TrES-2b also known as the darkest planet.

This exoplanet only reflects less than 1% of any light; that’s less than coal meaning it's darker. TrES-2b falls into the class of Hot Jupiter. Hot Jupiter are gas giants, similar to Jupiter but orbits closer to their star which increases their surface temperature. At the time computer predictions said, that Hot Jupiter should reflect around 10% of the sunlight that hits it.

So why is the planet so dark? A theory has been suggested, that is because the absence of reflective clouds. At almost 1000 celsius or 1800 fahrenheit it’s far too hot for clouds. We also know is that it’s atmosphere contains vaporized sodium, potassium and titanium oxide which all absorbs light. It has also been suggested it’s more likely something we might not have thought of before. Only time and more research will answer this questions.

Source
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2011-21