• 5 months ago
Oftentimes when astronomers discover new exoplanets they’re molten hot hellscapes or solid frozen spheres of ice. However, WASP-193b which resides 1,232 light-years is a little different.

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00:00Oftentimes, when astronomers discover new exoplanets, they're molten hot hellscapes
00:08or solid frozen spheres of ice.
00:10However, WASP-193b, which resides 1,232 light years away, is a little different.
00:18Not only is it around 50% larger than the likes of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our
00:22solar system, it's so wispy and light, experts say it's around the same consistency of
00:27cotton candy.
00:28According to recent observations, WASP-193b is only around 1% the density of Earth, despite
00:35having a diameter roughly 16 times that of our planet, and its lack of density is sort
00:39of throwing scientists for a loop.
00:41It's the second least dense planet ever discovered, however the other is much smaller, which makes
00:46more sense, with the lead astronomer investigating the exoplanet saying about it, quote, its
00:51extremely low density makes it a real anomaly among the more than 5,000 exoplanets discovered
00:55to date.
00:56But this extremely low density cannot be reproduced by standard models of irradiated
01:00gas giants, even under the unrealistic assumption of a core-less structure.
01:04Usually in the cosmos, large objects gather mass and pull more material in, which then
01:09compresses and builds density.
01:11WASP-193b shirks this fact of physics, meaning scientists have no idea what it's made of.

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