SCIENTISTS have discovered a unique, fluffy exoplanet that is 50% bigger than Jupiter over a thousand light-years away.
The exoplanet, named WASP-193b, has an extremely low density that researchers compared to cotton candy.
“Its extremely low density makes it a real anomaly among the more than five thousand exoplanets discovered to date,” explained Khalid Barkaoui, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liège EXOTIC Laboratory, according to EurekAlert!.
“This extremely low density cannot be reproduced by standard models of irradiated gas giants, even under the unrealistic assumption of a coreless structure.”
It was found by the Wide Angle Search for Planets, which uses wide-angle cameras to measure the brightness across stars in the sky, by researchers from the EXOTIC Laboratory of the University of Liège, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia.
Scientists believe that its low density is because it is made up of hydrogen and helium, according to EurekAlert!.
“The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material,” said planetary scientist Julien de Wit from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to EurekAlert!.
“The reason why it’s close to cotton candy is because both are pretty much air. The planet is basically super fluffy.”
This is the second least dense planet discovered after Kepler 51d, which was found in 2014, and is smaller than WASP-193b, according to Barkaoui.
The new exoplanet is believed to be so light it could float on water, according to Sky News.
It orbits a star similar to the Sun, a little over every six days, over 1,200 light years away and is thought to be six billion years old.
Data from the planet was collected between 2006 and 2008 and again from 2011 to 2012 by the WASP located in the southern hemisphere.
Astronomers believed that the dips in brightness over time aligned with a planet passing in front of a star every 6.25 days.
By measuring the amount of light the planet blocked, researchers were able to determine its size.
They also used spectroscopic observations to measure the mass of the planet, revealing that it was extremely low.
Scientists calculated that its mass and size were about 0.14 and 1.5 that of Jupiter, respectively.
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Its density was found to be about 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter, which is drastically less than other planets, per EurekAlert!.
Comparatively, Jupiter’s density is about 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter, while Earth’s is 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter.
A material on Earth that we can compare to this new planet’s density is cotton candy, which has a density of about 0.05 grams per cubic centimeter.
Researchers speculate that the heat the star it orbits could be making its atmosphere puff out.
“WASP-193b is a cosmic mystery. Solving it will require some more observational and theoretical work, notably to measure its atmospheric properties with the JWST space telescope and to confront them to different theoretical mechanisms that possibly result in such an extreme inflation”, Barkaoui concluded.
The discovery of the cotton candy planet comes only days after scientists revealed that a fiery “super-Earth” planet known as 55 Cancri e may have a rich atmosphere.
