Maybe elementary school students were on to something when they used Styrofoam spheres to create replicas of the solar system.
A new planet — discovered by a worldwide team of astronomers led by Joshua Pepper, a Lehigh University assistant professor of physics — has the same consistency as the planets in a science fair project.
The "Styrofoam planet" — officially called KELT-11b — is an extreme version of gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. It's atmosphere is so overinflated, the planet has only one-fifth the mass of Jupiter but is nearly 40 percent larger.
Pepper said the uninhabitable planet is the most inflated gas planet he's ever seen. Its discovery...