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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

Euclid telescope spies rogue planets floating free in Milky Way

A purple light in a dark sky shrouded in orange and stars
Euclid’s image of Messier 78, a vibrant star nursery shrouded in interstellar dust. Photograph: Esa/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/Nasa

Astronomers have spotted dozens of rogue planets floating free from their stars after turning the Euclid space telescope to look at a distant region of the Milky Way.

The wandering worlds were seen deep inside the Orion nebula, a giant cloud of dust and gas 1,500 light years away, and described in the first scientific results announced by Euclid mission researchers.

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