Discover planet 'wick button'

A newly found planet has a density of only 1/4 of water and will float if released into a bathtub large enough to hold it. " It's as light as a ball made of cork wood ," said Gaspar Bakos, the team leader from the Harvard-Smithsonian Astronomy Research Center.

Planetary HAT-P-1 illustration, the planet is only half as heavy but is 1.76 times larger than our own Jupiter.(Photo: NewScientist)

This planet, called HAT-P-1, is half as heavy as Jupiter but 1.76 times larger, equivalent to 24% larger than the theory's prediction.

The discovery, detailed in the upcoming issue of Astrophysical magazine, may force people to rethink theories about planet formation when astronomers are trying to explain what made them swell. so out.

HAT-P-1 belongs to a group of planets known as " hot Jupiter ", meaning planets that have orbits closer to their stars than the distance from Jupiter to our sun, although they are sized similar.

Using a network of small automatic telescopes called HAT, astronomers have realized this object as it passes in front of its parent star at 450 light years away.

HAT-P-1 is not the first light planet to be found outside our solar system, but is the largest.

T. An