The Terrifying Size of the Largest Planets We've Ever Found
Vistrel
7,642 views
The largest planet ever discovered is more than twice the width of Jupiter, yet it weighs less than half as much. Its density is comparable to cotton candy. It orbits so close to its star that it may be slowly tearing itself apart.
In this video, we explore the most extreme giant planets ever found, from scorching hot Jupiters inflated to impossible sizes by stellar radiation, to massive worlds crushed into compact spheres by their own gravity. We explain how astronomers measure the size and mass of planets orbiting distant stars using the transit method and radial velocity, why the widest planets are surprisingly lightweight, and why adding more mass to a gas giant can actually make it smaller, not larger.
Along the way, we meet HAT-P-67 b, the widest transit-confirmed planet known, with a density rivaling aerogel. We visit WASP-17 b, a retrograde world where the James Webb Space Telescope discovered clouds of microscopic quartz crystals blasting through the atmosphere at the speed of sound. We encounter WASP-193 b, a gas giant so light that standard physics struggles to explain how it exists. And we confront the blurry boundary between planets and brown dwarfs, where classification itself becomes uncertain.
This is a story about planetary physics at its most extreme, where quantum mechanics sets the ceiling on how large a planet can become, and where the biggest worlds reveal not the universe's power, but its constraints.
We’re now live on Spotify 🎧
https://open.spotify.com/show/033oDyu...
Sources:
NASA Exoplanet Archive. Planetary Systems Database. https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech...
Zhou, G., Bakos, G.Á., Hartman, J.D. et al. (2017). "HAT-P-67b: An Extremely Low Density Saturn Transiting an F-subgiant Confirmed via Doppler Tomography." The Astronomical Journal, 153(5), 211. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa674a
Fortney, J.J. & Nettelmann, N. (2010). "The Interior Structure, Composition, and Evolution of Giant Planets." Space Science Reviews, 152, 423-447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-95...
Grant, D., Lewis, N.K., Wakeford, H.R. et al. (2023). "JWST-TST DREAMS: Quartz Clouds in the Atmosphere of WASP-17b." The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 956(2), L32. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acfc3b
Spiegel, D.S., Burrows, A. & Milsom, J.A. (2011). "The Deuterium-Burning Mass Limit for Brown Dwarfs and Giant Planets." The Astrophysical Journal, 727(1), 57. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/727...
#Exoplanets #LargestPlanet #HotJupiter #SpaceDocumentary #JWST #PlanetaryScience #DeepSpace
The Terrifying Size of the Largest Planets We've Ever Found
Vistrel
7,642 views
The largest planet ever discovered is more than twice the width of Jupiter, yet it weighs less than half as much. Its density is comparable to cotton candy. It orbits so close to its star that it may be slowly tearing itself apart.
In this video, we explore the most extreme giant planets ever found, from scorching hot Jupiters inflated to impossible sizes by stellar radiation, to massive worlds crushed into compact spheres by their own gravity. We explain how astronomers measure the size and mass of planets orbiting distant stars using the transit method and radial velocity, why the widest planets are surprisingly lightweight, and why adding more mass to a gas giant can actually make it smaller, not larger.
Along the way, we meet HAT-P-67 b, the widest transit-confirmed planet known, with a density rivaling aerogel. We visit WASP-17 b, a retrograde world where the James Webb Space Telescope discovered clouds of microscopic quartz crystals blasting through the atmosphere at the speed of sound. We encounter WASP-193 b, a gas giant so light that standard physics struggles to explain how it exists. And we confront the blurry boundary between planets and brown dwarfs, where classification itself becomes uncertain.
This is a story about planetary physics at its most extreme, where quantum mechanics sets the ceiling on how large a planet can become, and where the biggest worlds reveal not the universe's power, but its constraints.
We’re now live on Spotify 🎧
https://open.spotify.com/show/033oDyu...
Sources:
NASA Exoplanet Archive. Planetary Systems Database. https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech...
Zhou, G., Bakos, G.Á., Hartman, J.D. et al. (2017). "HAT-P-67b: An Extremely Low Density Saturn Transiting an F-subgiant Confirmed via Doppler Tomography." The Astronomical Journal, 153(5), 211. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa674a
Fortney, J.J. & Nettelmann, N. (2010). "The Interior Structure, Composition, and Evolution of Giant Planets." Space Science Reviews, 152, 423-447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-95...
Grant, D., Lewis, N.K., Wakeford, H.R. et al. (2023). "JWST-TST DREAMS: Quartz Clouds in the Atmosphere of WASP-17b." The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 956(2), L32. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acfc3b
Spiegel, D.S., Burrows, A. & Milsom, J.A. (2011). "The Deuterium-Burning Mass Limit for Brown Dwarfs and Giant Planets." The Astrophysical Journal, 727(1), 57. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/727...
#Exoplanets #LargestPlanet #HotJupiter #SpaceDocumentary #JWST #PlanetaryScience #DeepSpace