Astronomers once believed that most solar systems would be much like our own, with small rocky planets near their sun, accompanied by gas giants orbiting the star at greater distances. Beginning in 1992, researchers began to find worlds orbiting alien stars, and soon found solar systems came in a wide variety of formations. Today, astronomers …
Astronomers once believed that most solar systems would be much like our own, with small rocky planets near their sun, accompanied by gas giants orbiting the star at greater distances. Beginning in 1992, researchers began to find worlds orbiting alien stars, and soon found solar systems came in a wide variety of formations.
Today, astronomers know of more than 4,000 worlds orbiting other stars. Of these,15 have exceedingly low densities, lower than that of cotton candy. TNW Couch Conferences
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Three of these planets — dubbed super-puff worlds — are found in the Kepler 51 star system,2,600 light years from Earth. Larger than the size of Jupiter, these planets contain less than one percent of the mass of the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter
These super-puff worlds have densities less than 0.1 grams per cubic centimeter. By comparison, the density of Earth is around 55 times greater, at around 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter. Jupiter weighs in at around 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter, while Saturn (the least-dense planet in our solar system) checks in just shy of 0.7 grams per cubic centimeter.our solar system
“We knew they were low density. But when you picture a Jupiter-sized ball of cotton candy — that’s really low density,” said Jessica Libby-Roberts, a graduate student in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Libby-Roberts examined these worlds in an effort to better understand their composition and to learn how such bizarre worlds may have formed.
