Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Gravitational scattering can fling worlds into interstellar space on their own. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Rogue planets wander the galaxy without a star

Gravitational scattering can fling worlds into interstellar space on their own Free-floating planetary-mass objects have been found by microlensing, where their gravity briefly magnifies a background star. Others appear in young star clusters, still warm from formation. They may be ejected from planetary systems or form alone from small clouds, and some estimates suggest they outnumber bound planets. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA Science

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TRAPPIST-1 hosts seven Earth-sized rocky planets around an ultracool starThree planets in the system orbit within the habitable liquid water zone The Kepler Space Telescope discovered thousands of exoplanetsMonitoring star brightness dips revealed worlds orbiting distant stars A planet crossing its star dims the lightThe size of the dip gives the planet's radius compared with its star's Wobbling starlight reveals unseen planetsA star's tiny back and forth motion shifts its spectral lines Some planets orbit two suns at onceKepler-16b circles a pair of stars that also eclipse each other Huygens landed on Titan and saw river channelsThe 2005 probe photographed drainage networks cut by liquid methane

Tags: exoplanets, rogue, microlensing

Rogue planets wander the galaxy without a star: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Gravitational scattering can fling worlds into interstellar space on their own. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.