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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Cotton candy exoplanet is 2nd lightest planet ever found

An illustration of the "cotton candy" planet WASP-193b.

Astronomers have discovered a new planetary oddball beyond the solar system that is as fluffy and light as cotton candy. 

The extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" named WASP-193 b is around 1.5 times the width of Jupiter but has just over a tenth of the solar system gas giant's mass. This makes it the second-lightest planet in the exoplanet catalog, which contains over 5,400 entries. Only the Neptune-like world, Kepler 51 d, is lighter than WASP-193 b.

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