Scientists Discover A New Planet Without A Sun

I am always curious about the stars, planets and space.  We all know that planets revolve around a sun, no matter where they are in the universe. Now, scientists have discovered a lonely planet that has no sun, it's just hanging out up there.

According to an article by Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

"Eighty light-years from Earth, there's a world that's just six times more massive than Jupiter, floating all alone without a sun to keep it warm, astronomers reported Wednesday.

"We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this," team leader Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said in a news release. "It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone."

The heat signature of the world, known as PSO J318.5-22, was identified by the Pan-STARRS 1 wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

In a report being published in "Astrophysical Journal Letters", Liu and his colleagues said the object has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting young stars."