PSO J318.5-22 - NASA Visions of the Future

Wandering alone in the galaxy, rogue planets do not orbit a parent star.

PSO J318.5-22  was discovered in October 2013 using direct imaging and belongs to a special class of planets called rogue, or free-floating, planets. Not much is known about how these planets come to exist, but they may be either failed stars or planets ejected from very young systems after an encounter with another planet. These rogue planets glow faintly from the heat of their formation, but once they cool down they will be completely in the dark.

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A creative team of visual strategists at JPL, known as "The Studio," created this image as part of the "Visions of the Future." poster series.

Image Credits: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech



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