Do you sleep with the lights on? If the thought of pitch-black darkness and eternal night makes you uneasy, TrES-2b might be the last place you'd want to visit. This alien world is so incredibly dark it reflects less than 1% of the light that hits it -- darker than coal, darker than black paint, and darker than any planet ever discovered. Orbiting a star 750 light-years away in the Draco constellation, this massive gas giant isn't just extreme -- it's one of the strangest and darkest worlds ever discovered.
While headlines have recently buzzed about K2-18b, a planet 124 light-years away that may host alien oceans and microbial life, TrES-2b offers a very different story. Even farther out in space, it's not life but darkness itself that defines this world.
Dubbed the "planet of eternal night," TrES-2b gives astronomers a surreal glimpse into the bizarre and unpredictable physics of the universe. Here's more about this extraordinary alien world and what makes it so uniquely dark.
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What Is TrES-2b?
TrES-2b is an exoplanet classified as a "hot Jupiter," a gas giant that orbits extremely close to its parent star. Discovered in 2006 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES), TrES-2b orbits the star GSC 03549-02811 A, located in the Draco constellation. It quickly gained fame not for its size or location, but for its near-total darkness.
Roughly 1.36 times the radius of Jupiter and about 1.49 times its mass, TrES-2b completes an orbit around its star in just 2.5 Earth days. Its close orbit -- just 0.035 astronomical units (AU) from its star -- exposes it to intense stellar radiation, heating its atmosphere to an estimated 1,885 Kelvin (1,612°C / 2,924°F).
But what truly sets TrES-2b apart isn't the heat. It's the light -- or rather, the near-complete lack of it. Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope found that the planet reflects less than 1% of the starlight that hits it, making it the darkest known exoplanet.
TrES-2b's darkness is so extreme that if you were flying through its atmosphere, you'd be blind without artificial light. Even coal reflects more light than this planet.
A Closer Look Inside A Planet Of Perpetual Night
The reason for TrES-2b's darkness lies in its atmosphere. While many planets reflect light due to clouds or icy surfaces, TrES-2b appears to lack those features. Its thick atmosphere likely contains exotic chemicals such as vaporized sodium and potassium or gaseous titanium oxide -- all known to absorb rather than reflect light.
Its nearness to its star further complicates the chemistry. At such extreme temperatures, any reflective cloud cover would likely evaporate, leaving behind a dark, heat-absorbing atmosphere. It's possible that the only light on the planet would come from a faint red glow -- heat radiating from its superheated gases.
What makes this even more eerie is that TrES-2b, despite its gloom, might still glow faintly in the infrared. Scientists have speculated that a dim thermal light, not visible to the human eye, could bathe the planet in an ominous, otherworldly red.
TrES-2b Feature
Details
Planet Type
Gas giant (Hot Jupiter)
Distance from Earth
~750 light-years
Orbit Period
2.5 Earth days
Surface Temperature
~1,885 K (1,612°C / 2,924°F)
Light Reflectivity
Host Star
GSC 03549-02811 A
Discovered
2006 (TrES survey)
Why TrES-2b Matters
TrES-2b is more than just a strange planet floating in deep space -- it's a fascinating case study that helps scientists understand how extreme planetary atmospheres can behave. By studying this planet, astronomers have uncovered new clues about hot Jupiters, a type of giant, gas-filled exoplanet that orbits extremely close to its star.
Its almost complete lack of reflectivity challenges what scientists thought about albedo (how much light a surface reflects). It's made researchers rethink which atmospheric chemicals might absorb light -- and how those same chemicals could appear on other, very different kinds of planets.
Learning from TrES-2b also helps prepare for future space missions aimed at finding signs of life or climate patterns on distant worlds. By understanding what makes a planet so dark, the better equipped we are to spot other strange -- and possibly life-supporting -- Earth-like planets across the galaxy.
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How Long Would It Take To Travel To TrES-2b?
Reaching TrES-2b is way beyond anything humans can do right now. At about 750 light-years away, it's in a part of the galaxy that would take even our fastest spacecraft -- like Voyager 1 -- more than 13 million years to reach. And that's if it kept cruising along at its current speed of about 17 kilometers per second.
To put that into perspective, even if we somehow built a ship that could travel at 10% the speed of light, the trip would still take around 7,500 years. So for now, we'll have to settle for observing TrES-2b through telescopes and interactive tools like NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets.
Futuristic propulsion methods -- like light sails or antimatter engines -- might change that one day. But for the time being, TrES-2b will remain a place for scientists, storytellers, and dreamers.
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TrES-2b, the darkest planet ever discovered, is a humongous gas giant wrapped in mystery and pitch black night. Its eerie darkness and extreme atmosphere continue to fascinate scientists and sci-fi fans. It's a reminder that the universe is stranger and more surprising than we can imagine. As technology advances, maybe one day we'll get a closer look. But for now, TrES-2b remains a distant, dimly glowing marvel in the deep dark of space.