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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

James Webb Space Telescope finds 'puffball' exoplanet is uniquely lopsided

Matthew Murphy Jupiter Earth JWST NASA
An illustration of the inflated exoplanet WASP-107 b orbiting its star.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered that a "puffy" planet is asymmetric, meaning there is a significant difference between one side of the atmosphere and the other.

The extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" in question is WASP-107 b, which orbits an orange star smaller than the sun located around 210 light-years away. Discovered in 2017, WASP-107 b is 94%  the size of Jupiter but only has 10% of the mass of the solar system gas giant. This means it is one of the least dense exoplanets ever discovered, far "puffier" than expected. 

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