Planets Without Stars, Wanders Galaxy Alone

Astronomers have found a new type of planet drifting by itself through space, unbounded to any star. By scanning the crowded center of our Milky Way Galaxy, the international team discovered up to 10 Jupiter sized "orphan planets; about 10,000 to 20,000 light-years from Earth. Details appeared in a May 19 study in Nature.

The Hunt For New Planets

The Extra Terrestrial Planets

They have been among the hottest things in astronomy for more than a decade. But let's face it. Giant Jupiters, fried Neptunes, inflated fat Saturns, pairs of giants in resonant orbits - these are just lead-ups to the main act. What we really need to know about are Exo-Earths. By an "Earth," astronomers generally mean a planet that's small enough to have a solid, rocky surface but big enough to hold a considerable atmosphere, and maybe with the possibility of "liquid" water. In other words, a place where life as we know it might arise and remains. Perhaps even, with a lot of luck, a place where humans could someday walk around on it's surface with nothing more than an oxygen tube, or even without.