An illustration depicting the Sun-like star Kepler 51 and three giant Jupiter-sized planets, discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope discovered in 2012-2014 (Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Hustak, J. Olmsted, D. Player and F. Summers (STScI))

Cotton candy is probably the last thing that comes to mind when one thinks of exoplanets. But the three giant worlds orbiting the Kepler 51 star system, about 2,600 light-years away from Earth, are so "light and fluffy" that they warrant a comparison to the beloved spun-sugar confection.