Jupiter was once known as the biggest planet with a radius of 69,911 km. That all changed in 2007, when a new planet, surpassing Jupiter in size, was announced.
Discovered using the Transit Method by none other than earth-based TrES telescope, TrES-4b is a gas giant 1,683 light-years away from Earth. It takes 3.6 days for the planet to orbit its F-type star, despite the fact that its proximity to its star is shorter than Mercury’s. TrES-4b is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, similar to other gas giants in our own solar system. Shockingly, this planet is bigger than Jupiter! A question asked by many is, how did it get so large? The answer is due to the short distance to its star. Because of this, TrES-4b has a temperature of 1,509 degrees Celsius (2,748 degrees Fahrenheit). As a result of this heat, the gas in the planet expands resulting in it growing larger than Jupiter.
Overall, TrES-4b is the largest planet discovered for now; there may soon be a new-found planet big enough to exceed it.
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