{"id":3188,"date":"2024-05-16T11:45:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T11:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/wasp-193b-super-fluffy-candy-floss-planet-bigger-than-jupiter-discovered-by-astronomers\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T11:45:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T11:45:12","slug":"wasp-193b-super-fluffy-candy-floss-planet-bigger-than-jupiter-discovered-by-astronomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/wasp-193b-super-fluffy-candy-floss-planet-bigger-than-jupiter-discovered-by-astronomers\/","title":{"rendered":"WASP-193b: \u2018Super fluffy\u2019 candy floss planet bigger than Jupiter discovered by astronomers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Astronomers have identified a planet as light and fluffy as candy floss – despite being far bigger than our solar system’s gas giant Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Scientists said WASP-193b is “basically super fluffy” because it has remarkably low density for its size.<\/p>\n

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It’s thought to consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, according to a study published in Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n

WASP-193b is the second least dense planet discovered by astronomers – but is proving a mystery to experts due to its size, which is around 50 per cent bigger than Jupiter.<\/p>\n

“The planet is basically super fluffy” because it’s made mostly of light gases rather than solids, according to lead author Khalid Barkaoui of the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT).<\/p>\n

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More observational work will need to be carried out before astronomers can answer all the questions posed by its “fluffy” existence.<\/p>\n

Scientists said WASP-193b, which some experts believe is so light it could float on water, is ideal for studying the formation and evolution of planets.<\/p>\n

The existence of the exoplanet – those beyond our solar system – was confirmed last year, but it took extra time and work to determine its consistency based on observations from ground telescopes.<\/p>\n

The planet is located outside of our solar system some 1,200 light years away – one light year is equal to 5.8 trillion miles – and orbits a star which is similar to the sun.<\/p>\n

It is thought the heat from its nearby sun, which it orbits a little over every six days, could be making its atmosphere inflate.<\/p>\n

The fluffy planet’s emergence comes days after researchers revealed there is a “super-Earth” located in our Milky Way galaxy.<\/p>\n

The rocky world, called 55 Cancri e or Janssen, is situated around 41 light years from Earth and has a diameter of around twice that of our planet.<\/p>\n

Renyu Hu, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead author of the study published in the journal Nature, said: “The atmosphere is likely rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, but can also have other gases such as water vapour and sulphur dioxide.<\/p>\n

“The current observations cannot pinpoint the exact atmospheric composition.”<\/p>\n

The planet “cannot be habitable” because it is too hot to have liquid water, scientists added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Astronomers have identified a planet as light and fluffy as candy floss – despite being far bigger than our solar system’s gas giant Jupiter. Scientists said WASP-193b is “basically super fluffy” because it has remarkably low density for its size. It’s thought to consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, according to a study published in <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}