A Moroccan scientist has discovered an extremely light and delicate exoplanet resembling "cotton candy," which is 50% larger than Jupiter and located more than a thousand light-years away. The exoplanet, named WASP-193b, has an extremely low density that scientists have compared to cotton candy. According to the website "EurekAlert," Khalid Barkawi, a postdoctoral researcher at the EXOTIC Lab at the University of Liège, explained, "Its extremely low density makes it a true anomaly among over five thousand exoplanets discovered so far. This low density cannot be reproduced by standard models of gas giants, even under the unrealistic assumption of a coreless structure."
WASP-193b was found through the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) program, which is an international coalition of several academic organizations searching for exoplanets using the transit method with wide-angle imaging devices. Scientists from the EXOTIC Lab at the University of Liège, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Andalusian Institute of Astronomy participated in this discovery. Scientists believe that the planet's low density is due to its composition of hydrogen and helium, according to EurekAlert.
Planetary scientist Julian De Wit from MIT stated, "The planet is so light that it's hard to think of a similar material in solid state. The reason for comparing it to cotton candy is that both are largely made up of air. The planet is essentially very thin." This peculiar planet, WASP-193b, is the second least dense exoplanet ever discovered, according to a research paper published in Nature Astronomy. It follows the planet Kepler 51d discovered in 2014, which is smaller than WASP-193b, according to Moroccan researcher Khalid Barkawi.
The newly discovered exoplanet is thought to be so light that it could float on water. It completes its orbit around a sun-like star in just a little over six days. It is located more than 1200 light-years away and is believed to be six billion years old. Data on the planet was collected from 2006 to 2008 and again from 2011 to 2012 via the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) program located in the southern hemisphere.
Astronomers believe that the brightness dips over time correspond to the passage of the planet in front of the star every 6.25 days. By measuring the amount of light blocked by the planet, scientists could determine its size. They also used spectral observations to measure the planet's mass, revealing it to be extremely low. The scientists estimate its mass and size to be about 0.14 and 1.5 times that of Jupiter, respectively. They found that its density is approximately 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter, which is significantly less than that of other planets. In comparison, Jupiter's density is about 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter, while Earth's density is 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter. This means that WASP-193b is seven times less dense than Jupiter and 1% less dense than our planet. One Earth material that can be compared to the density of this new planet is cotton candy, which has a density of about 0.05 grams per cubic centimeter.
Scientists speculate that the heat from the star around which the planet orbits could cause its atmosphere to swell. Barkawi notes that "WASP-193b is a cosmic mystery," indicating that the team plans to carry out further observational and theoretical work using the James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA describes as the most powerful telescope ever built by humanity to date.
