Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2022

46 MAY-JUNE 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING R ogue planets are elusive cos- mic objects that have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own. Not many were known until now, but a team of as- tronomers, using data from several European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes and other facilities, have just discovered at least 70 new rogue planets in our galaxy. This is the largest group of rogue planets ever discovered, an important step towards understanding the origins and features of these mysterious galactic nomads. “We did not know how many to ex- pect and are excited to have found so many,” says Núria Miret-Roig, an as- tronomer at the Laboratoire d’Astro- physique de Bordeaux, France and the University of Vienna, Austria, and the first author of the new study published in Nature Astronomy . by ESO - Bárbara Ferreira ESO telescopes help uncover largest group of rogue planets yet