{"id":47510,"date":"2024-05-15T10:19:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T09:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=47510"},"modified":"2024-05-15T10:19:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T09:19:22","slug":"mit-astronomers-discover-giant-superlight-wasp-193b-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/mit-astronomers-discover-giant-superlight-wasp-193b-planet\/47510\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT astronomers discover giant, superlight ‘WASP-193b’ planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
Discovered by researchers from MIT and the University of Li\u00e8ge, WASP-193b is a giant, superlight, distant planet<\/a> in the Milky Way.<\/p>\n The planet is larger than Jupiter in size (around 50%) but only has a tenth of its density, making it the second lightest planet among the 5,400 discovered to date, with the Neptune-like Kepler 51d being the lightest.<\/p>\n These enigmatic characteristics pose an array of challenges to our current understanding of planet formation.<\/p>\n Co-lead author Francisco Pozuelos, a senior researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalucia, explained: “We don’t know where to put this planet in all the formation theories we have right now because it’s an outlier of all of them.<\/p>\n “We cannot explain how this planet was formed based on classical evolution models. Looking more closely at its atmosphere will allow us to obtain an evolutionary path of this planet.”<\/p>\n The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), an international collaboration of academic institutions, discovered WASP-193b using their two robotic observatories.<\/p>\n These observatories, located in the northern and southern hemispheres, use arrays of wide-angle cameras to measure the brightness of thousands of stars across the sky.<\/p>\n Between 2006 and 2008, and again from 2011 to 2012, the WASP-South observatory detected periodic transits, or dips in light, from WASP-193. This bright, sun-like star is located 1,232 light years from Earth.<\/p>\n The observed periodic dips in brightness indicated the presence of a planet orbiting the star every 6.25 days. The amount of light blocked during each transit suggested the planet was a giant, similar in size to a super Jupiter.<\/p>\n To determine the planet’s mass, astronomers employed the radial velocity technique. This method involves analysing the star’s spectrum to detect shifts caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet.<\/p>\n A more massive planet closer to its star causes greater shifts in the star’s spectrum, helping scientists estimate its mass.<\/p>\n Despite obtaining high-resolution spectra of WASP-193b from various ground-based telescopes, astronomers struggled to measure the planet’s mass.<\/p>\n The reason was that the planet was too light to exert a detectable gravitational pull on its star. This made it difficult to calculate its mass using radial velocity.<\/p>\n Ultimately, following multiple data analyses, the astronomers confirmed that the planet was extremely light \u2013 around 0.14 the mass of Jupiter.<\/p>\n Moreover, its density is around 0.059 grams per cubic centimetre, whereas Jupiter is 1.33 grams per cubic centimetre, and Earth is a more substantial 5.51 grams per cubic centimetre.<\/p>\n Researchers believe that WASP-193b is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, similar to other gas giants in the galaxy.<\/p>\n However, WASP-193b’s atmosphere is likely far more inflated, extending tens of thousands of kilometres beyond Jupiter’s atmosphere.<\/p>\n The mechanism behind such an extensive and low-density atmosphere remains unexplained by current planetary formation theories.<\/p>\n To gain a deeper understanding of WASP-193b, the research team plans to use a technique developed by de Wit.<\/p>\n This method involves deriving key atmospheric properties, such as temperature, composition, and pressure at various depths. These properties will help accurately determine the planet’s mass.<\/p>\n WASP-193b is considered an excellent candidate for further study, particularly with advanced observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n By leveraging these powerful tools, researchers hope to uncover more details about this unusual, fluffy world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Astronomers have identified a unique and puzzling planet known as WASP-193b that has a density similar to cotton candy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":47511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[818,3477],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wide Angle Search for Planets<\/h3>\n
Estimating the mass of WASP-193b<\/h3>\n
Future research<\/h3>\n