Artist Ashley Zelinskie unveils the 'Unfolding the Universe: Wandering Through Time and Space' exhibit to celebrate the James Webb Space Telescope.
Rogue planets, also known as free-floating planets (FFP) or isolated planetary-mass objects (iPMO), have become a major focus for astronomers. The first such objects were detected in 2000 by teams at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) and the Keck Observatory, though earlier detections were made that were unconfirmed at the time. Since then, research has shown that these planets may actually be more common than planets that orbit stars, with some estimates placing the population as high as 4 trillion in our galaxy alone.
