A new planet has been discovered and apparently it is pretty fluffy - like candy floss. The exoplanet, WASP-193b, was discovered 1,232 light-years away and while it's nearly 50 percent bigger than Jupiter, it's light and fluffy making it as dense as the sweet treat. According to a team led by astronomer Khalid Barkaoui of the University of Liège in Belgium, the planet orbits a Sun-like star named WASP-193. This star is around 1.1 times the mass and 1.2 times the radius of the Sun and is very close to the Sun in temperature and age. The planet orbits the star around once every 6.25 days. Barkaoui and his colleagues also found its radius is around 1.46 times the radius of Jupiter. But its mass is incredibly small by comparison: just 0.139 times Jupiter's. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter From these properties, the researchers derived the exoplanet's density: 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter. This is a lot less dense than other planets like Jupiter and Earth. And as a point of comparison, cotton candy has a density of 0.05 grams per cubic centimeter which is why they made the link. There are few other examples of a planet like this existing but its close proximity to a star may give an indication as to how it came to exist as its heat is likely to have warmed up the planet's puffy atmosphere, which is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. This state of the planet is only set to last for around a few ten million years as the temperatures and winds emitted from the star are only likely to strip back the atmosphere further. Due to this scientists cannot fully recreate or determine what is causing WASP-193b's unique atmosphere but is it likely to be a continued source of study to try and determine the cause of this phenomenon. You probably won't find this planet sold at fairgrounds any time soon though. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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NASA's Perseverance rover picked up some intriguing-looking objects on Mars this week, which prompted all kinds of speculation on social media. The photo in question was captured on 18 August as Perseverance travels over an "ancient river" and was voted the space agency's top image of the week. On X/Twitter, NASA wrote: "As promised, here’s the new Image of the Week, as voted by you! This rocky duo was spotted hanging out together in a wind-swept area. I spy a…crab claw? Shark fin?" The post was soon flooded with users' takes, with many claiming the two boulders mirrored a shark fin and a crab claw. "I don't know why, but those rocks are really satisfying to look at," one person wrote, while another joked: "I vote for coffee bean." Meanwhile, one realist responded: "That’s literally two rocks." The Perseverance rover landed on 18 February 2021, after a 7-month journey from Earth that started in the summer. The robot has since provided the world with stunning visuals – one of which captured the hearts of social media users. Last year, the rover acquired a pet rock friend on its back wheel, that continued to hitchhike months into its journey. Perseverance likely picked up the large stone in Jezero Crater, which is a 45 kilometer-wide crater thought to have once been filled with water. "The Perseverance rover has a pet rock. NASA says it's breaking hitchhiking records," one person said at the time, while another added: "There's a small rock that's been hitching a ride inside one of the metal wheels of a Mars Rover and I gotta say Perseverance's Pet Rock is a kid's book in the making." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Marvel’s latest series, Secret Invasion, is making waves on the internet – though the studio may not be best pleased when it finds out why. Director Ali Selim was greeted with anger from fans after revealing that the opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence. However, he said that the idea of using AI for the sequence, designed by Method Studios, fit into the themes of the show. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He said: “When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it – it just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?” Selim admitted that he does not “really understand” how the AI works, only that he was interested in it. He said: “We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.” The resulting social media backlash was largely around the fact that using AI likely meant graphic designers and animators, who usually craft opening credits, were cut out of the loop. The revelation comes as the Writers’ Guild America is on strike after negotiations with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed. Part of the negotiation was over protecting writers against the use of AI in the creative process. It means that over the last two months, the use of AI to replace humans in creative jobs has been at the forefront of discussions around the strike. Jon Lam, a storyboard artist, wrote on Twitter: “This is salt in the wounds of all Artists and Writers in the WGA strike.” Another person wrote: “I really loved the first episode of Secret Invasion but them using AI ‘art’ for their intro is just wack. Do better Marvel.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 5, 2023--

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will set up the world's first artificial intelligence safety institute, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday,

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