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Scientists have stumbled upon the darkest material ever seen, which absorbs 99.995% of the light and makes by comparison the blackest black known up to now.
The ultra-black material is composed of vertically aligned microscopic carbon chains, called carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The researchers have no idea why it's so dark, but they are excited about its potential.
Until now, the blackest material known was the Vantablack, which absorbs 99.96% of the light, which means the new unnamed material. "Reflected 10 times less light than all other superblack materials, including Vantablack," The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explains.
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The dark discovery was made as MIT engineers looked for ways to develop CNTs on conductive materials. They noticed how black NTCs were when they grew up on aluminum foil and decided to measure their "Optical Reflectance" and soon found that the material absorbed almost all the light directed towards it.
This amazing new material could be used in telescopes and cameras to eliminate glare, and the aerospace community has already garnered interest. Nobel laureate astrophysicist John Mather plans to use it to create a massive black hue to protect a space telescope.
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Dark matter is currently on display at an art exhibition in New York. MIT resident artist Diemut Strebe worked with the researchers to cover a 16.78-carat black diamond with a $ 2-million natural diamond, making the glittering stone completely black.
"Because of the extremely high light absorption qualities of CNTs, any object, in this case a big diamond coated with CNT, becomes a kind of black hole without shadow," Strebe said.
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