IMAGE: An artist’s impression of a free-floating planet. Using observations and archival data from several of NSF’s NOIRLab’s observatories, together with observations from telescopes around the world ...

New research from the University of St Andrews has found that giant free floating planets have the potential to form their own miniature planetary systems without the need for a star. In findings ...

Rogue planets — worlds that drift through space alone without a star — largely remain a mystery to scientists. Now, astronomers have for the first time confirmed the existence of one of these starless ...

Astronomers have observed a planet that in some ways behaves more like a star — including a massive growth spurt unlike anything witnessed before in a free-floating planet. The rogue planet, which ...

The formation of planets is a fascinating process. They usually originate in a disc of dust and gas surrounding stars. When particles come together, they form a clump, and through a process called ...

There is a category of planet that belongs to no star. It was thrown clear of its solar system early in the chaos of planetary formation, sent drifting into the galaxy’s cold interior with no sun to ...