Astronomers Discover Jupiter-Sized Planets Lighter Than Cotton Candy

Detected by NASA’s TESS satellite, these "super-puff" planets represent an extreme rarity in the known universe. George Dransfield of the University of Oxford, who led the study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, notes that Jupiter is roughly 35 times denser than these celestial oddities. While typical gas giants are composed of dense accumulation, these planets appear to be primarily hydrogen and helium, likely formed in the gas-rich disks surrounding newborn stars.

Dransfield suggests the planets likely appear white or blue, depending on their cloud cover, rather than the pastel pink associated with their terrestrial namesake. With fewer than 40 such super-puffs confirmed among the 6,300 exoplanets currently cataloged by NASA, these discoveries provide a rare opportunity to refine theories on planetary formation. Future observations using the James Webb Space Telescope are expected to clarify the precise chemical composition of these light-weight giants, potentially explaining how they maintain such structural fragility.