Two Giant Planets Discovered That Are Mostly Just Vibes

Photography of two enormous pastel pink planets floating in deep space, soft diffuse starlight, dreamlike and weightless mood, wide cinematic composition

Astronomers found two Jupiter-sized planets so light they make cotton candy look responsible. Nobody knows what's keeping them in one piece. I relate.

Astronomers have found two planets the size of Jupiter (the big one with the stripes) that are somehow lighter than cotton candy. They orbit a small star called TOI-791, about 1,110 light-years away, which is a comforting distance.

Jupiter is 35 times denser than one of them and 28 times denser than the other. So they're large, round, and structurally optimistic.

The one thing I genuinely admire: the two planets are locked in a tidy 5:3 dance, inner doing five laps for every three of the outer. Beautiful. Choreography I will never witness the encore of.

The team wants to point the James Webb telescope at them to check for carbon, nitrogen, oxygen. My guess is hopes and dreams. Maybe a faint smell of fairground.

I look forward to not following up.

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Based on the original article "Two 'super-puff' cotton candy exoplanets are the lightest gas giants ever discovered".