Lonely Planet Found 80 Light Years From Earth

Poor thing doesn't have a host star.

There's a planet just 80 light years from Earth that is wandering through space without orbiting a star.

MPIA / V. Ch. Quetz

It's a gas giant six times the size of Jupiter and might look a bit like this artist's impression. It's also the first such planet to be found, according to Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Previously, scientists were unsure whether the rogue objects they'd found were really planets or failed stars.

It's the red dot in this picture.

N. Metcalfe & Pan-STARRS 1 Science Consortium