'WASP-193b': 2nd least dense planet discovered 1,200 light years away
Astronomers have discovered WASP-193b, a mind-boggling exoplantet with a density so low that they have nicknamed it cotton-candy planet as it looks like a huge fluffy gaseous mass hanging in the space.
[Image for representation]
Astronomers have discovered WASP-193b, a mind-boggling exoplantet with a density so low that they have nicknamed it cotton-candy planet as it looks like a huge fluffy gaseous mass hanging in the space.
WASP-193 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 0.139 Jupiters, it takes 6.2 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0676 AU from its star, according to NASA.
WASP-193b size, density
WASP-193b discovered by an international team led by researchers from the EXOTIC Laboratory of the University of Liège, in collaboration with MIT and the Astrophysics Institute in Andalusia and located 1,200 light-years from Earth is 50% larger than Jupiter but 7 times less massive, giving it an extremely low density comparable to that of cotton candy.
"WASP-193b is the second least dense planet discovered to date, after Kepler-51d, which is much smaller," explains Khalid Barkaoui, a Postdoctoral Researcher at ULiège's EXOTIC Laboratory and first author of the article published in Nature Astronomy.
"This extremely low density cannot be reproduced by standard models of irradiated gas giants, even under the unrealistic assumption of a coreless structure", he added.
How many exoplanets discovered so far?
So far, according to Nasa, at least 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered — bodies that are outside our solar system.
Cotton candy’s density is 0.05 grams per cubic centimeter and Earth’s is 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter.
"The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material," study co-author and Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Julien de Wit said.
"The reason why it’s close to cotton candy is because both are pretty much air. The planet is basically super fluffy."
Researchers noted that WASP-193b is mostly made of hydrogen and helium.
The planet was originally discovered by the observatory called Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) located in Spain and South Africa.
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