Can object have pitch black color? I mean literally just black and not reflecting light. - General

Just out of curiosity - Can object be pitch black colored? I mean without any reflection, just literally dark dark, not sure of examples as there aren't any that I know of, I guess closest I can say is black colored velvet fabric. If not, then which is the black-est known object/material in the world? I am really curious about this. Same goes for white color, can it be like white white and not reflect anything?

A black hole. I know some scientists recently made some super black meta material thing in the past year or two but I don't have the article off the top of my head.

[QUOTE=arleitiss;47206288]can it be like white white and not reflect anything?[/QUOTE] Wouldn't be white then, i don't know about black but i white is not possible.

Technically speaking, the sun is the blackest object in the solar system, as it doesn't reflect any of the light that hits it. It's just that it's emitting immense numbers of photons from itself. White is kind of by definition a major amount of reflection, because colour is an outcome of the light absorption/reflection properties of a surface. [IMG]http://www.daviddarling.info/images/color_and_reflection.jpg[/IMG] I found [URL="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/407438/materials-that-reflect-no-light/"]this article about a coating that's been developed that's 99.9% absorptive, reflecting only 0.1% light[/URL]. That's the bottom object in this photo from [URL="http://nanotechnologytoday.blogspot.ca/2007/03/worlds-first-ideal-anti-reflection.html"]this blog post[/URL] about it: [t]http://i.imgur.com/Zaspf9Q.png[/t] (It's blue because the nature of the coating means it reflects more blue light than it reflects the others.)

[img]http://shhome.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/vantablack-surrey-nanosystems.jpg[/img] [url]http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/[/url] i think this is the closest we have right now

[QUOTE=jordz;47206687][img]http://shhome.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/vantablack-surrey-nanosystems.jpg[/img] [url]http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/[/url] i think this is the closest we have right now[/QUOTE] I was about to post this. It's kinda freaky to look at.

[QUOTE=jordz;47206687][img]http://shhome.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/vantablack-surrey-nanosystems.jpg[/img] [url]http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/[/url] i think this is the closest we have right now[/QUOTE] I wonder if this could be used in some way for camouflage

[QUOTE=Just2Rusty;47207043]I wonder if this could be used in some way for camouflage[/QUOTE] It's too dark, ironically. You'd see the silhouette in the night time surprisingly easily

[QUOTE=Just2Rusty;47207043]I wonder if this could be used in some way for camouflage[/QUOTE] the airforce has tested several black coated radar absorbing satellites in the past, at least a couple were deployed on the space-shuttle, obviously the advantages of a satellite that can't be tracked are tremendous for the intelligence community, no one knows what became of it, but a pure black satellite would have some temperature management issues and would have to keep its black side carefully oriented to minimize thermal load

[QUOTE=Sableye;47214433]the airforce has tested several black coated radar absorbing satellites in the past, at least a couple were deployed on the space-shuttle, obviously the advantages of a satellite that can't be tracked are tremendous for the intelligence community, [B]no one knows what became of it[/B], but a pure black satellite would have some temperature management issues and would have to keep its black side carefully oriented to minimize thermal load[/QUOTE] They obviously lost track of it.

Charlie Murphy

[QUOTE=Levelog;47216410]They obviously lost track of it.[/QUOTE] well, i mean the airforce probably has a good idea of where it is, i was meaning the program also back towards topic, a pure black object cannot exist because assuming it absorbs all electromagnetic forces aimed at it such as light, radio waves, x-rays, ect ect, it would basically be storing enourmous amounts of energy and not releasing any of it ever which violates the laws of themodynamics

[QUOTE=Sableye;47226125]well, i mean the airforce probably has a good idea of where it is, i was meaning the program also back towards topic, a pure black object cannot exist because assuming it absorbs all electromagnetic forces aimed at it such as light, radio waves, x-rays, ect ect, it would basically be storing enourmous amounts of energy and not releasing any of it ever which violates the laws of themodynamics[/QUOTE] Black holes do a damn good job of trying, but they gradually radiate their energy away over incomprehensibly long timescales, so they are not in fact truly 'black'. There's your answer, OP. Create a gravitational singularity and you'll have a true black object until it evaporates. Unfortunately, if it isn't large enough to destroy the Earth, it'll evaporate before your eyes can see it, and it'll be tiny.

[QUOTE=jordz;47206687][img]http://shhome.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/vantablack-surrey-nanosystems.jpg[/img] [url]http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/[/url] i think this is the closest we have right now[/QUOTE] Just checked it, it's rgb(7, 9, 6) so it's not perfectly black even by camera's stadnards

[QUOTE=WhyNott;47237690]Just checked it, it's rgb(7, 9, 6) so it's not perfectly black even by camera's stadnards[/QUOTE] To be fair though, that could be the camera fucking up more than it is the surface not being black.

[QUOTE=jordz;47206687][img]http://shhome.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/vantablack-surrey-nanosystems.jpg[/img] [url]http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/[/url] i think this is the closest we have right now[/QUOTE] Paint a massive weather balloon in it and float it above a city, watch as chaos ensues as everyone thinks they're about to be spaghettified by a black hole.

[QUOTE=xamllew;47240203]Paint a massive weather balloon in it and float it above a city, watch as chaos ensues as everyone thinks they're about to be spaghettified by a black hole.[/QUOTE] Nah, they'd just think it was a UFO. Then the legitimate response for once would be "it was just a weather balloon."

Can i buy some of that, cut out rectangles and make censor bars?