A new planet discovered 320 light years away from Earth has the density of styrofoam, according to a new study published in The Astronomical Journal.

The “puffy planet” was found orbiting a star outside our solar system and may grant opportunities for testing atmospheres which will be helpful when studying other planets for signs of life.

“It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40 percent larger, making it about as dense as styrofoam, with an extraordinarily large atmosphere,” Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of physics at Lehigh University, said.

Pepper led the study in collaboration with researchers from Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University, as well as with researchers from other universities around the world.

The planet, named KELT-11b, is an intense version of a gas planet, such as Jupiter or Saturn. It orbits very closely to its extremely bright host star in an orbit that only lasts five days. The styrofoam planet, however, is estimated to be engulfed by its star, which is evolving into a red giant, and not survive within the next hundred million years.

Pepper built two small robotic telescopes that are used in a KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) survey, with one located in Arizona, while the other is in South Africa. They scan the stars every night, measuring the brightness of approximately five million stars. Researchers search for stars that have regular dimming patterns and also use other telescopes that measure the gravitational “wobble” of the star to verify that the dimming, or “transit,” is due to a planet.

The “extraordinarily inflated” KELT-11b, located in the southern sky, is the third-lowest density planet that has been discovered.

“We were really surprised by the amazingly low density of this planet,” Pepper said. “It’s extremely big for its mass. It’s got a fifth of the mass of Jupiter but is puffed up into this really underdense planet.”

Researchers are still debating the cause of the planet’s mass inflation and further study of the planet could provide the answers they are looking for.

“We don’t know of any real Earth-like planets or stars for which we can measure their atmospheres, though we expect to discover more in future years,” Pepper said. “These (giant gas) planets are the gold standards or testbeds for learning how to measure the atmospheres of planets.” About Sarah Ulaky