A Rogue Earth-Mass Planet Has Been Discovered Freely Floating in the Milky Way Without a Star

If a solar system is a family, then some planets leave home early. Whether they want to or not. Once they’ve left the gravitational embrace of their family, they’re pretty much destined to drift through interstellar space forever, unbound to any star. Astronomers like to call these drifters “rogue planets,” and they’re getting better at …