Free-floating Planets Abound in Milky Way

Researchers discovered at least seventy free-floating planets in a region of the Milky Way known as the Upper Scorpius OB stellar association.

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 and in orbit, astronomers have discovered at least 70 new free-floating planets — planets that wander through space without a parent star — in a nearby region of the Milky Way known as Upper Scorpius OB stellar association. CREDIT: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva

This story was actually released right as we went on hiatus for the holidays, but I have been wanting to write about it ever since. In a paper published in…