7 Creepy worlds across the cosmos

Eternal darkness

Planet: TrES-2b

Discovered: 2006

Distance from Earth: 750 lightyears

This alien gas giant reflects less than one per cent of the sunlight that falls on it, making it blacker than coal and the darkest known exoplanet. It orbits just 4.8 million kilometres from its parent star, heating its atmosphere to over 980 degrees Celsius – too hot for reflective clouds like those on Jupiter to exist. Instead, its atmosphere consists of light-absorbing chemicals like titanium oxide gas and vaporised sodium and potassium.

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