Homeless planet discovered is seven times the size of Jupiter (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Astronomers have discovered a "rogue" planet 100 light years from Earth.

The discovery of the homeless planet with the unflattering name CFBDSIR2149, suggests that starless planets and even worlds may be more common than once believed, said Space.com.

"Although theorists had established the existence of this type of very cold and young planet, one had never been observed until today," said Étienne Artigau, an astrophysicist at Universite de Montreal, reported the Telegraph.

The homeless planet is not small and weak however.

Rather it is believed to be seven times larger than Jupiter cruising through space without a care or pull from gravitational forces.

"This object was discovered during a scan that covered the equivalent of 1000 times the surface of the full moon,"

Time said that the planet is relatively close to Earth and may have accidentally been released from its solar system.

"If this little object is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image of orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space," study author Philippe Delorme, of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France, reported Space.com.

The finding was reported in the journal journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.