Feature Astronomy

Solo planets may be surprisingly common

Wandering worlds — with no parent star — raise questions about what it means to be a planet

OTS 44

GOING ROGUE  A disk of gas and dust swirls around OTS 44, a rogue planet shown in this artist’s illustration. It may have formed the same way stars are made.

A. M. Quetz/MPIA

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

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Out among the stars, toward the constellation Capricornus, a red sphere floats freely through space.