Scientists have explained in a new study that how a planet-sized version of an electric toaster heats up some exoplanets to puff up to gigantic size.

More than 150 planets have been found orbiting closer to their host stars than Mercury.

These are some times called "hot Jupiters" because they can have surface temperatures of 2000 degree Celsius or more and have a similar mass to Jupiter but can have up to six times the volume.

Scientists have been puzzled regarding the fact that something must be heating the interior of these planets to make them puff up in this way.

The missing energy could originate in a wind of charged particles circling the planet, said a report by Konstantin Batygin and David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Adam Burrows of Princeton University, who models the properties of exoplanets but was not associated with the study, said," The little power that you're depositing there may be enough to inflate the planet."

More detailed modeling is needed to determine whether currents generated this way reach far enough into the interiors of hot Jupiters to puff them up, Burrows further added. (With Inputs from Agencies)