Astronomers Discover Lone Planet with No Star

Astronomers have discovered a lone planet, floating in space without a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light  years away from Earth and has a mass six times that of Jupiter. The planet is only 12 million years old—a newborn in planet lifetimes. "We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” ...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - jeudi 10 octobre 2013