Astronomers have found at least 70 new rogue planets that are as big as Jupiter but don’t rotate around any stars, roaming freely in the Milky Way.

Astronomers just made a big discovery that could be the first step in understanding how planets form, evolve and break apart.

A newly published report revealed that astronomers have found at least 70 new rogue planets that are as big as Jupiter but don’t rotate around any stars, roaming freely in the Milky Way. Astronomers used multiple telescopes from the European Southern Observatory along with other facilities and 20 years worth of data from other telescopes on the ground and in space. 

Because rogue planets aren’t tethered to a star, they can be hard to spot. However, one of the authors of the study, Núria Miret-Roig, explained in a press release that in the few million years after their formation, many of these rogue planets are still hot enough to glow. That makes them detectable by sensitive cameras on large telescopes.

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The number of rogue planets doesn’t stop at 70 though, with the study suggesting that there could be many more star-less planets that have yet to be discovered. 

“There could be several billions of these free-floating giant planets roaming freely in the Milky Way without a host star,” said Hervé Boouy, project leader of the new research study.

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