Scientists Discover Earth-Sized Free-Floating Rogue Planet In Milky Way

VIANI, COLOMBIA - AUGUST 11: The Milky Way is seen at night in Viani, Colombia on August 11, 2020. (Photo by Juan David Moreno Gallego/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

London: An Earth-sized free-floating rogue planet, which does not orbit any star, has been discovered by scientists in the Milky Way galaxy.

“Rogue planets don’t orbit stars, they are gravitationally unattached to any host star. They don’t emit any visible radiation, so they cannot be detected using traditional astrophysical techniques,” Przemek Mroz, one of the co-author’s of the paper, explained on Twitter.

Polish astronomers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw provided the first evidence of existence of rogue planets, a few years ago.

The latest discovery is the smallest rogue planet thus far.

“Our discovery demonstrates that low-mass free-floating planets can be detected and characterized using ground-based telescopes,” said study co-author Andrzej Udalski, Professor at the University of Warsaw.