Strange 'rogue' planet spotted guzzling matter like a star

A mysterious “rogue” planet has been observed gobbling six billion tonnes of gas and dust a second — an unprecedented rate that blurs the line between planets and stars, astronomers said Thursday.

Unlike Earth and other planets in our solar system which orbit the Sun, rogue planets float freely through the universe untethered to a star.

Scientists estimate there could be trillions of rogue planets in our galaxy alone — but they are difficult to spot because they mostly drift quietly along in perpetual night.

These strange objects intrigue astronomers because they are “neither a star nor a proper planet,” Alexander Scholz, an astronomer at Scotland’s University of St Andrews and co-author of a new study, told AFP.

“Their origin remains an open question: are they the lowest-mass objects