Gadgets

Good News, Goth Kids! There’s Now a Colour Blacker Than Black

There’s no colour more rock’n’roll than black, the staple of any proper wardrobe. If there was something darker, we’d all go for that.

Wait. Darker than black? How is that even possible? Thanks to science, it is.

It’s called Vantablack, a material invented in 2017 that is the blackest material known to science. This guy is holding an object sprayed with Vantablack. The picture is not ‘Shopped. That’s…eerie.

Vantablack isn’t a paint. It’s a special coating (spray-on, too!) made up millions upon millions of carbon nanotubes, each about 3,500 times smaller than the width of a human hair. That means just one square centimetre is covered by about a billion of them. Light enters the tiny gaps between the tubes and is instantly absorbed, hence the blackness. Vantablack reflects so little light that current spectrographic technology can’t even measure its reflectivity.

Here’s a closeup.

Can you imagine a car in Vantablack? Or a pair of jeans? Read more here.

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39664 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

3 thoughts on “Good News, Goth Kids! There’s Now a Colour Blacker Than Black

  • You’ve ruined the “none more black” scene from Spinal Tap for me forever!

    Reply

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