Blacker than Black?

Surrey Nanosystems, a British tech company, has created a substance called Vantablack. Vanta stands for Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays. Vantablack has set a new world record for being the substance that reflects the least amount of light/ absorbs the most amount of light at .04 amount of light reflected.

These scientists had to use millions of tiny little carbon nanotubes that are packed so tightly together that light gets lost in the cracks and can't actually pass through the nanotubes themselves. One of the most interesting parts is that even if the Vantablack is on a contoured surface, say crinkly tin foil, the human eye cannot process the contours because of the amount of light that is absorbed into the Vantablack! We see it as not really flat surface, but basically the closest thing to a black hole that has been human made so far. Described by the Chief Technology Officers, Ben Jensen, "Vantablack reduces stray-light, improving the ability of sensitive telescopes to see the faintest stars, and allows the use of smaller, lighter sources in space-borne black body calibration systems."

Hopefully soon this can be mass produced not just for the government and military, solely so that I can stare at it for hours on end because it's SO cool!

http://www.nerdist.com/2014/07/the-worlds-blackest-black-created-by-scientists-worn-by-snakes/

Submitted by Charlotte King