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Wasp-193B, a giant planet with a density similar to that of cotton candy


Co-discovered by researchers from the University of Liège, this exoplanet is larger but seven times less massive than Jupiter and is the second least dense planet discovered to date.

An international team led by researchers from the EXOTIC Laboratory of the University of Liège, in collaboration with MIT and the Astrophysics Institute in Andalusia, has just discovered WASP-193b, an extraordinarily low-density giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star. his new planet, located 1,200 light-years from Earth, is 50% larger than Jupiter but seven times less massive, giving it an extremely low density comparable to that of cotton candy. “The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material,” says Julien de Wit, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-author.

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