A planet orbiting a star 1,400 light-years from Earth is darker than asphalt.
New data from the Hubble Space Telescope shows that WASP-12b, which has a radius twice as large as Jupiter's, is an incredibly hot planet with a very low albedo—meaning that it's incredibly dark.
WASP-12b is known as a "hot Jupiter" because it's about the size of our solar system's largest planet, yet orbits very close to its star. That close distance is also probably responsible for the alien world's pitch-black color.
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via Zero Tech Blog
