There may be more rogue planets than stars in our galaxy

In the study, scientists estimated that NASA's future Nancy Grace Space Telescope could find

hundreds of “rogue planets” in the Milky Way.Identifying these planets will help scientists determine the total number of “rogue planets” in our galaxy, Johnson said. Rogue or free-floating planets are isolated objects whose mass is similar to that of the planets. The origin of such objects is unknown, but there is a possibility that they were previously associated with their parent star.

“The universe may be teeming"Rogue planets," and we won't even know about it, "said Scott Gaudi, professor of astronomy and distinguished scientist at Ohio State University and co-author of the article. "We will never know about this unless we do a thorough investigation using space microlensing, as NASA's new Nancy Grace telescope is about to do."

New telescope named after the firstNASA's chief astronomer, who was also known as the "mother" of the Hubble telescope, will try to build the first census of rogue planets that could help scientists understand how these objects are formed. The Nancy Grace telescope will also have other goals, including finding planets that orbit stars in our galaxy.

Microlensing is the only known methodcapable of detecting planets at really great distances from Earth. It can find planets orbiting stars near the galactic center thousands of light years away.

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