Marshmallow planet celebrates new year every 3.5 days
Astronomers discover a new planet that has the density of a marshmallow and takes 3.5 days to rotate around its host sun.
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Marshmallow planet's density would have it floating in a bathtub (SPA)
An odd planet was discovered by astronomers using the Kitt Peak National Observatory telescope in Arizona, orbiting a chilly red dwarf star.
The average density of the newly-discovered planet is that of a marshmallow.
Planet TOI-3757-b is the lowest-density planet yet found near a red dwarf star and is situated around 580 lightyears from Earth in the Auriga the Charioteer constellation.
In addition to being a gigantic softie, researchers discovered that the Jupiter-sized exoplanet would float if placed in an enormous cosmic bathtub.
Astronomers were able to determine the diameter of the planet TOI-3757-b is slightly larger than that of Jupiter, owing to observations made by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
The planet travels only 3.5 days to complete one full circle around its host star, 25 times faster than the nearest planet to our solar system, which takes roughly 88 days.
Jessica Libby-Roberts the second author of a paper published in The Astronomical Journal said that “potential future observations of the atmosphere of this planet using NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope could help shed light on its puffy nature."
Read more: NASA captures photo of "smiling sun"
