An international team led by astronomer Khalid Barkaoui from the University of Liège in Belgium has announced its work on planetary evolution. According to the research, the exoplanet named WASP-193b, which corresponds to 1 percent of the density of the Earth, was discovered.
Bigger than Jupiter, lighter than Earth! Here is the exoplanet WASP-193b
Discovered 1,232 light-years away, WASP-193b is referred to by the astronomy world as the dandelion bubble. Stating that planets like WASP-193b are rare, analysts emphasized that such discoveries are important in order to explain planetary evolution.
WASP-193b is described as an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star called WASP-193. This star is about 1.1 times the mass and 1.2 times the radius of the Sun, and it should be noted that it is very close to the Sun in terms of temperature and age. However, WASP-193b orbits its star much closer than the planets in the Solar System. Note that the exoplanet gets closer to the star every 6.25 days.
Examining how the star’s light changes as it orbits the exoplanet allowed Barkaoui and his colleagues to calculate the Earth’s radius and mass. The radius of the exoplanet is about 1.46 times the radius of Jupiter. But its mass is incredibly small by comparison: only 0.139 times that of Jupiter.
Examining the findings, the researchers calculated that the exoplanet had a density of 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter. Let’s say that the density of the Earth is 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter. Jupiter’s density is 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter.
The star is thought to be up to 6 billion years old. While there is a mechanism for internal heat inflating WASP-193b’s atmosphere, the observed features of the exoplanet cannot be reconstructed using complex models of planetary evolution.
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