Scientists Discover Extremely Rare Giant 'Super Fluffy' Candy Floss-like Planet

A recently identified planet has been whimsically likened to cotton candy due to its surprisingly low density.

This newly found giant, dubbed WASP-193b, is a massive celestial body that's about 50 percent bigger than Jupiter and situated some 1,200 light years away from us.

Getty Stock Photo

While it takes our Earth roughly 365 days to complete one orbit around the Sun, WASP-193b whizzes around its star in just 6.25 days — that's pretty fast!

Described as having an extraordinarily low density, WASP-193b has been said to resemble the fluffy texture of cotton candy.

The planet's name comes from its discovery by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) project, which, since its inception in 1999, has identified over 150 planets.

An international team, spearheaded by researchers at the University of Liège's EXOTIC Laboratory, made the exciting discovery.

They noted that WASP-193b ranks as the second least dense planet found so far.

Dr. Khalid Barkaoui, a postdoctoral researcher at the EXOTIC Laboratory and the lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy remarked:

"Its extremely low density makes it a real anomaly among the more than five thousand exoplanets discovered to date." 

WASP-193b's density has been compared to cotton candy. Getty Stock Photo

He added: "This very low density cannot be reproduced by our standard models of irradiated gas giants, even under the unlikely hypothesis of a coreless structure."

Julien de Wit, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a co-author of the study, commented on the unique density of WASP-193b, saying:

"The planet is so low density that it is difficult to think of an analogous material in the solid state."

He elaborated: "This planet is of course not made of cotton candy, but that's the best analogy we have in terms of density."

It is believed that WASP-193b is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, similar to other gas giants in our galaxy.

With the peculiar nature of WASP-193b, astronomers are puzzled over how and why such a planet could form.

Francisco Pozuelos, an astronomer at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain) said:

The new discovery is second least dense planet on record. Getty Stock Photo

"We are forced to admit that we cannot explain either the structure or the formation of such a planet."

"However, we hope to learn more by studying its atmospheric composition," he added.

Meanwhile, Barkaoui referred to WASP-193b as a 'cosmic mystery,' highlighting just how baffling this discovery is.

To give a sense of its flimsiness, the density of WASP-193b is a mere 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter.

For comparison, the density of Earth is 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter, while Jupiter's density is about 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter.