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Haunting Planets With No Stars Discovered Lurking In Space
The rise of “rogue planets”
Out in space, dancing among the stars, are planets that orbit nothing. They follow no set path other than the ones being dictated by overarching forces of ancient physics that push them along their merry way. Many of these planets are the size of Jupiter. There is no day on these planets. No night. The only thing that would betray the passage of time are the slowly rotating constellations overhead. But even those will change as the planets move to a completely different part of the galaxy untethered.
These are so-called rogue planets. An unknown number of them exist but they are being discovered with increasing regularity lurking in the dark spaces between stars. They do not orbit any sun and they do not behave in the ways that most people expect planets to behave.
How do planets exist without stars? We are just starting to learn more.
A recent discovery
In early 2022, a report was released to the press announcing the discovery of 70 new rogue planets. Many of these planets are the size of Jupiter and they are exceedingly hard to locate since they reflect very little light and are not close to easy-to-spot suns. They rotate and hurl through empty space completely on their own volition.
