Scientists Spot 70+ Rogue Planets Drifting Through the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected at least 70 rogue planets—worlds that wander the galaxy alone.

Key Takeaways:

  1. At least 70 free-floating planets have been discovered, making it the largest known group.
  2. These planets don’t orbit a star and travel freely through space.
  3. Rogue planets are difficult to detect because they emit little to no light.
  4. Scientists analyzed 20 years of telescope data to identify these planetary wanderers.
  5. Upcoming telescopes like ELT and Roman will help uncover their origins and characteristics.

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Astronomers have discovered a record-breaking number of rogue planets—at least 70—wandering freely in space without orbiting a star. The discovery, made using 20 years of observational data, marks the largest known group of free-floating planets ever found. The study was published in Nature Astronomy on Wednesday.

A Cosmic Mystery

Rogue planets, also called free-floating or nomad planets, are unlike most known worlds because they don’t revolve around a star. Instead, they drift through the galaxy, making them extremely difficult to detect. Traditionally, astronomers find exoplanets by observing a dip in a star’s brightness when a planet transits in front of it. However, rogue planets do not create such signals.

The first known rogue planet, CFBDSIR2149, was discovered in 2012 about 100 light-years from Earth. Since then, astronomers have spotted more, including an Earth-sized rogue world in 2020. Some researchers speculate that these planets could potentially support life, even without a parent star.

location of 115 planets seen in red circles
Each of those 115 red circles points to the presence of a possible rogue planet. ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

A Breakthrough Discovery

The team of astronomers behind the new study combined data from multiple telescopes, including the European Space Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite. By examining the movement and brightness of celestial objects, they identified at least 70 rogue planets—and possibly up to 170 candidates—located in a star-forming region near the Sun, in the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus.

“We did not know how many to expect and are excited to have found so many,” said lead researcher Núria Miret-Roig from the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France and the University of Vienna in Austria.

Despite the large number of rogue planets found, their origins remain uncertain. Scientists theorize they either formed alone like stars or were ejected from planetary systems. Either way, these planets travel independently around the galaxy’s center, much like stars do.

This image shows a small area of the sky in the direction of the region occupied by Upper Scorpius a...
The area of the sky where a record-breaking number of rogue planets were discovered.ESO/Miret-Roig et al.

What’s Next?

Researchers hope that studying this massive group of rogue planets will provide more insight into their formation and evolution. The upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), set to begin observations later this decade, is expected to help scientists study these planets in more detail.

“These objects are extremely faint, and little can be done with current facilities,” said project leader Hervé Bouy. “The ELT will be crucial in gathering more information about most of the rogue planets we have found.”

NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2027, will also play a key role in detecting and studying these elusive celestial wanderers.

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