Stellar Rip-off | Vacuum Birth | Rogue Planet | Planemo

There are enormous numbers of free-floating planets (FFPs) in interstellar space which are not gravitationally bound to any star.

They were first spotted occasionally in microlensing surveys when the gravity of the planet in the foreground acted as a lens to temporarily magnify the light of a background star. Now hundreds of these “rogue” planets have been imaged directly.

Frequently found in star clusters, some believe that they are so numerous that they could even outnumber the stars in the Milky Way.

This article describes three different scenarios for the formation of interstellar planets, describes what JWST found in the Trapezium Cluster and then takes a look at a theory by David J. Stevenson, professor of planetary science at Caltech, for the possibility of life evolving on some of these dark, freezing worlds.