Studying the atmosphere of a 'puffy' exoplanet about 200 light-years from Earth may have unraveled a confounding cosmic mystery.
Astronomers believe they've solved a peculiar and well-established cosmic mystery, NASA announced this week. Mainly using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope , two groups of researchers may have discovered what causes certain planets to appear 'puffy' or inflated far beyond the sizes their remarkably low densities would suggest.
The exoplanet weighs about the same as 30 Earths, while Jupiter weighs more than 300, making WASP-107b one of the least dense known planets, NASA said. That was odd because it is less hot and less massive than other 'puffy' exoplanets, like the Jupiter-like deep-space gas giant WASP-193b, which was discovered last year and also noted for its extraordinarily low density.
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