The pitch-black exoplanet WASP-12b

Date: 14 September 2017
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Copyright: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI), CC BY 4.0
This artist's impression shows the exoplanet WASP-12b – an alien world as black as fresh asphalt, orbiting a star like our Sun. Scientists were able to measure its albedo: the amount of light the planet reflects. The results showed that the planet is extremely dark at optical wavelengths.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Last Update: 1 September 2019