'Cotton Candy' Planet Mysteries Unravel in New Hubble Observations
Thursday, December 19, 2019 - 13:40
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers using Hubble have studied a unique class of young, migratory exoplanets that have the density of cotton candy. Nothing like them exists in our solar system. They orbit the star Kepler 51, located 2,600 light-years away. Hubble spectroscopic observations allowed researchers to refine mass estimates for these worlds--independently confirming their "puffy" nature.