Astronomers believe they’ve detected a free-floating planet roughly the mass of the Earth roaming through the gut of the Milky Way. Out of the billions of possible ‘rogue’ planets in the galaxy, only a few have been spotted. The discovery could help prove a long-standing theory, as Live Science details:
According to the study authors, this little world could be the first real evidence that free-floating, Earth-sized planets may be some of the most common objects in the galaxy.
"The odds of detecting such a low-mass object are extremely low," lead study author Przemek Mroz, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology, told Live Science in an email. "Either we were very lucky, or such objects are very common in the Milky Way. They may be as common as stars."
Image via Live Science