Super-puff
Planet with a mass slightly above Earth but with a radius larger than Neptune From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Planet with a mass slightly above Earth but with a radius larger than Neptune From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A super-puff is a type of exoplanet with a mass only a few times larger than Earth's but with a radius larger than that of Neptune, giving it a very low mean density.[1] They are cooler and less massive than the inflated low-density hot-Jupiters.[1]
The most extreme examples known are the three planets around Kepler-51 which are all Jupiter-sized but with densities below 0.1 g/cm3.[1] These planets were discovered in 2012 but their low densities were not discovered until 2014.[2] Another example is Kepler-87c.[1]
One hypothesis is that a super-puff has continuous outflows of dust to the top of its atmosphere (for example, Gliese 3470 b), so the apparent surface is really dust at the top of the atmosphere.[2] Another possibility is that some of the super-puff planets are smaller planets with large ring systems, like HIP 41378 f.[3]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
