What if mysterious 'cotton candy' planets actually sport rings?

March 2, 20200



Credit : Illustration is by Robin Dienel and courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Some of the extremely low-density, “cotton candy like” exoplanets called super-puffs may actually have rings, according to new research by Carnegie’s Anthony Piro and Caltech’s Shreyas Vissapragada

Super-puffs are notable for having exceptionally large radii for their masses–which would give them seemingly incredibly low densities. The adorably named bodies have been confounding scientists since they were first discovered, because they are unlike any planets in our Solar System and challenge our ideas of what distant planets can be like.

“We started thinking, what if these planets aren’t airy like cotton candy at all,” Piro said. “What if the super-puffs seem so large because they are actually surrounded by rings?”

In our own Solar System, all of the gas and ice giant planets have rings, with the most well-known example being the majestic rings of Saturn. But it has been difficult for astronomers to discover ringed planets orbiting distant stars.

More:
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/what-if-mysterious-cotton-candy-planets-actually-sport-rings/126017