Astronomers Discover Largest Exoplanet: 2 Times Wider and 10 Times Heavier than Jupiter

Astronomers have discovered a planet that is 2 times wider and 10 times heavier than Jupiter. Photo/NASA/Live Science

GENEVA – Since astronomers first looked outside solar system three decades ago, it was discovered that the planets in the Milky Way are smaller than the exoplanets in the universe. Astronomers have discovered a planet that is 2 times wider and 10 times heavier than Jupiter.

Jupiter is used as a benchmark because it is planet the largest in our solar system which has an average radius of 69,911 km and a mass of 1.8986 × 10^27 kg. Compared to Earth, which has an average radius of 6,371 km and a mass of 5.97 × 10^24 kg, Jupiter is nearly 11 times larger in diameter than Earth and 1,321 times larger in volume than Earth’s.

Solene Ulmer-Moll, a postdoctoral exoplanet researcher at the University of Geneva, said the largest exoplanet ever discovered was the gas giant planet HAT-P-67 b. This planet has a radius about 2 times that of Jupiter, but the exoplanet, which is 1,200 light years from Earth, has a mass about one third that of Jupiter.

“This largest exoplanet has a radius about 2 times that of Jupiter. This is an extreme object that orbits very close to its parent star,” Solene Ulmer-Moll told Live Science quoted SINDOnews, Monday (14/8/2023).

Next is the planet WASP-17 b which has a diameter roughly 2 times wider than Jupiter. Then there is the planet KELT-9b, which has a radius of about 1.84 times that of Jupiter.

WASP-17 b is also known as the largest rocky planet known as super-Earth because it is larger than Earth. “By comparison, Wasp-17b has a radius equivalent to 22 Earths,” said Ulmer-Moll.

Although rocky planets are denser than gas giants, they are not as heavy as gas giant planets. That’s because as the rocky planet grows, it collects gas, ice and water which gradually turns it into a gas giant.

The most massive planet, which is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter, is known as a gas giant, HD 39091 b. The exoplanet is located 60 light years from Earth, and has a mass about 12.3 times that of Jupiter.

“There are planets for which we have measured masses to be roughly 13 Jupiter masses, such as HD 39091 b and HD 106906 b. They are arguably the largest known planets,” said Nolan Grieves, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva’s Department of Astronomy.

(wib)

2023-08-14 06:27:23
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