NASA's TESS spacecraft finds two 'cotton candy' planets in one system
Key takeaways
- These super puffy planets are very rare.
- NASA / Daniel Rutter NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS has found what NASA calls the two "puffiest" worlds ever found.
- The planets were discovered by a team led by George Dansfield of Oxford University's Department of Physics, who studied data provided by TESS.
These super puffy planets are very rare.
NASA / Daniel Rutter NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS has found what NASA calls the two "puffiest" worlds ever found. While they're as big as our gas giants, they're so light and airy that their density is apparently comparable to cotton candy. One of the planets, called TOI-791 b, is nearly the same size as Jupiter but only has three percent of its mass. Meanwhile, the second planet called TOI-791 c is even larger than Jupiter but only has 5.9 percent of its mass.
The planets were discovered by a team led by George Dansfield of Oxford University's Department of Physics, who studied data provided by TESS. Dansfield said we're only aware of a handful of super puffy planets, and the fact that these two are in the same star system is even rarer. NASA Ames research scientist Steve Howell explained that large planet formation is believed to drive the evolution of planetary systems, so "further study of these Jupiter-size, but far less than Jupiter-mass, planets is of high value."