spacetoday.net: "Homeless" planet spotted in deep space

Posted: Thu, Nov 15, 2012, 6:52 AM ET (1152 GMT)
Homeless planet CFBDSIR2149 (ESO)

Astronomers announced Wednesday the discovery of a "homeless" planet 100 light-years away not orbiting any star. Astronomers detected the object, designated CFBDSIR2149, using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, with followup observations made by ESO's Very Large Telescope. The object four to seven times as massive as Jupiter and is part of a group of young stars called the AB Doradus Moving Group, but is not orbiting any of those stars. The world is thought to be either a planet that was ejected from one of the stars during the process of forming a solar system, or a body that formed independently of any stars. Astronomers believe such free-floating planets may be as common as normal stars.