Mystery planet swallows light
ASTRONOMY Recently, astronomers discovered a pitchblack object, which swallows up almost all light. Only 6% of the light that reaches it is reflected.
The mysterious planet is called WASP-12b, and is a 'hot Jupiter' – a type of huge and extremely warm gas giant, which orbits very closely around its star. These planets have a very short orbit, and it only takes 24 hours for WASP-12b to orbit around its star. This means that the black planet always has the same side to the star. So the planet has a dayside and a nightside, and this is probably the reason for its lightswallowing characteristics. The dayside reaches a scorching 2538 °C – as much as a small star, which means that most molecules cannot survive. As a result, clouds do not form, which normally reflect light back into space. Light penetrating the atmosphere becomes heat.