Spiny Norman said:
British researchers have created the ‘new black’ of the science world – and it is being dubbed super black.
The material absorbs all but 0.035 per cent of light, a new world record, and is so dark the human eye struggles to discern its shape and dimension, giving the appearance of a black hole.
Named Vantablack, or super black, it also conducts heat seven and half times more effectively than copper, and is ten times stronger than steel.
It is created by Surrey NanoSystems using carbon nanotubes, which are 10,000 thinner than human hair and so miniscule that light cannot get in but can pass into the gaps in between.
More
So let me see, is science eventually catching up with science fiction here? E.E.Smith in his Lensman series from 1950 said something like “we already have a black that is 99.9% absorptive, what say we put some scientists on the job and see how many more nines we can tack on after that”. This is 99.965.
> When will Vantablack make its way into consumer telescopes?
Don’t hold your breath. The amateur Australian astronomer Bird from Murrumbateman is on record as saying that amateur off-the-shelf telescopes are made shiny because shiny sells, but shiny is the worst thing you can have for for avoiding image distortion due to thermal convection turbulence caused by the telescope itself. So the first thing he does after buying a telescope is to remove the shine and blacken it.
I’d guess that the first applications will be military, as was suggested by E.E.Smith, but with a bit of luck it will become available for private application shortly after that.
By the way, I had a tiny bit of trouble buying the whitest possible paint a few months ago, I wanted maximum visibility. But the paint wasn’t available through normal paint suppliers.