Illuminating Light

The Blackest Black

Our perception of the color and brightness of an object depends on how much light the surface reflects. The less light reflected, the darker the object appears. Black appears when a surface absorbs almost all the incoming light. Even so, no black surface can absorb light completely– tiny amounts of light are reflected, allowing us to see texture and form.

The “blackest black” can absorb roughly 99.9% of incoming light because of a unique quality. Rather than being a traditional pigment, it is an engineered material with a structure designed to trap light. This extreme level of absorption makes it especially important in the fields of space research and optics, where it’s used to coat telescopes and sensitive instruments. In these settings, even the slightest reflection can interfere with the observation of faint, distant objects such as stars or galaxies.