Imagine a planet the size of Neptune, itself about four times the size of our home planet. Instead of orbiting our Sun, this exoplanet revolves around a star in the Virgo constellation roughly 200 light-years from Earth. Perhaps most notably, it has a very low mass — 10% the mass of Jupiter despite being 80% its volume, with an atmosphere of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia. Which means it probably smells pretty gnarly.
Meet WASP-107 b, a planet that has long transfixed astronomers ever since it was discovered in 2017 with help from an array of telescopes known as the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), which is also where its name comes from.
