Astronomers have found planets that are twice as wide as Jupiter and more than 10 times as heavy, but there's a limit to how big planets can get.
Since astronomers first looked beyond the solar system three decades ago to discover extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, we've known that planets in the Milky Way — and probably the wider universe — come in a vast array of widths and masses.Prior to 1992, when the first exoplanet was discovered, the gas giant Jupiter, which is about 11 times as wide as Earth, held the title of the biggest known planet. But Jupiter is a pip-squeak compared with some monster worlds we've discovered since.
For example, the gas giant HAT-P-67 b, which has a radius about twice that of Jupiter, is currently among the largest known planets in terms of width. Yet the exoplanet, which is 1,200 light-years from Earth, has a very low density, so it has only about a third of the mass of Jupiter, Ulmer-Moll said.
Even though rocky planets are denser than gas giants, they still don't get as heavy as gas giants. That's because as rocky planets grow, they accumulate gas, ice and water that gradually transforms them into gas giants with a rocky center, she said. Brown dwarfs are often referred to as"failed stars" because they are heavier than super-Jupiters but not massive enough to trigger ordinary hydrogen fusion at their cores. But something still burns at the hearts of brown dwarfs.
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