Scientists have discovered a planet that they said could float in a bathtub if you could get one large enough.
TOI-3757 b has the density of a marshmallow, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Discovery Alert!📣
— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) October 20, 2022
A Jupiter-like planet orbits a cool red dwarf star ~580 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer. TOI-3757b is the lowest-density planet ever detected around a red dwarf. It has the density of a MARSHMALLOW. https://t.co/tYpWteTmWt pic.twitter.com/mK92TY7CU9
The planet is about 580 light-years away from us and is orbiting a red dwarf star in the Auriga constellation.
TOI-3757 b has a density of about 17 grams per cubic foot or a quarter that of water, according to a news release by Noir Lab.
The discovery left scientists to wonder: how could a low-density planet form around a red dwarf star?
The astronomers who found it said that there may be two reasons.
First, the planet has a rocky core that may have attracted gases from the neighboring gas giants as the core slowly formed, but the star that it orbits around doesn’t have as many heavy elements compared to similar systems, causing the core to form slower than they typically do.
Second, the orbit of TOI-3757 b is slightly elliptical so the uneven distance it has from the star can cause the atmosphere to bloat.
The planet was first found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
The findings were originally published in The Astronomical Journal.
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