Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.What is big, with a fluffy, cotton candy-like composition? Turns out, a planet.An international coalition of astronomers has newly discovered an unusual planet, dubbed WASP-193b, that’s about 50% bigger than Jupiter and somehow still the second lightest planet ever found.But WASP-193b, located beyond our solar system about 1,200 light-years from Earth, isn’t just a scientific oddity. The exoplanet could also be key to future research investigating atypical planetary formation, according to a study describing the find that published Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.This cotton candy planet isn’t alone; there are other similar planets belonging to a class scientists facetiously call “puffy Jupiters.” The lightest planet ever discovered is the superpuffy Kepler 51d, which is nearly the size of Jupiter but a hundred times lighter than the gas giant.Puffy Jupiters have largely been a mystery for 15 years, said lead study author Khalid Barkaoui. But WASP-193b, because of its size, is an ideal candidate for further analysis by the James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories.“The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material,” said Barkaoui, a postdoctoral researcher of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a news release. “The reason why it’s close to cotton candy is because both are mostly made of light gases rather than solids. The planet is basically super fluffy.”Low-density planet presents big challengeWASP-193b, which researchers think is made up of mostly hydrogen a …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.What is big, with a fluffy, cotton candy-like composition? Turns out, a planet.An international coalition of astronomers has newly discovered an unusual planet, dubbed WASP-193b, that’s about 50% bigger than Jupiter and somehow still the second lightest planet ever found.But WASP-193b, located beyond our solar system about 1,200 light-years from Earth, isn’t just a scientific oddity. The exoplanet could also be key to future research investigating atypical planetary formation, according to a study describing the find that published Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.This cotton candy planet isn’t alone; there are other similar planets belonging to a class scientists facetiously call “puffy Jupiters.” The lightest planet ever discovered is the superpuffy Kepler 51d, which is nearly the size of Jupiter but a hundred times lighter than the gas giant.Puffy Jupiters have largely been a mystery for 15 years, said lead study author Khalid Barkaoui. But WASP-193b, because of its size, is an ideal candidate for further analysis by the James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories.“The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material,” said Barkaoui, a postdoctoral researcher of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a news release. “The reason why it’s close to cotton candy is because both are mostly made of light gases rather than solids. The planet is basically super fluffy.”Low-density planet presents big challengeWASP-193b, which researchers think is made up of mostly hydrogen a …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
