Researchers have discovered an exoplanet which called Styrofoam planet due to its puffiness. The new planet is said to be the clue to alien life.
A highly inflated new planet named as the Styrofoam planet have been discovered by the researchers at Lehigh University, Science Daily reported. The new planet orbits a star with the distance of 320 light years from Earth and has a density of Styrofoam. The researchers believe that the Styrofoam planet can be the clue to finding alien life in the universe, testing the atmospheres and search for habitable planets.
According to Seeker, the Styrofoam planet would possibly provide the best information on the gasses of other planets with large atmospheres. Astronomer and assistant professor of Physics at Lehigh University, Joshua Pepper described the physical characteristics of the Styrofoam planet and compared it to Jupiter. Pepper further stated that the newly found planet is nearly 40 percent larger and is as denser as a Styrofoam with an incredible atmosphere.
Joshua Pepper led the group of researchers who discovered the Styrofoam planet and collaborated with researchers from Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University. The Styrofoam planet was later on called, KELT-11b, with an extremely bright host star which allows precise measurement of its atmospheric properties.
KELT is short for Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope-11b orbits very close to its host star in less than five days. The Styrofoam planet also has huge gasses similar to Saturn and Jupiter. Pepper said that "the Styrofoam planet is the most excellent testbed to measure the atmospheres of other planets."
The researchers believe that the planet will also take the great part of the discovery of alien life and the types of gasses in the atmospheres of other planets as they look for habitable planets. More so, the Styrofoam planet is believed to be necessary for the next decade of space exploration especially when they construct new telescopes.
