Planets

"New models hint at huge population of free-roaming planets.

When a star dies in a violent supernova, some of its planets may survive the blast but be ejected from orbit and sent wandering the galaxy, a new study suggests.

The theory offers an explanation for the handful of free-roaming planets found so far, and it could mean many more such rogue worlds exist across the Milky Way.

"Because every star dies, and many of these stars are massive enough to trigger planetary ejection, there is ample opportunity throughout the galaxy for stellar deaths to contribute to the free-floating population," said study leader Dimitri Veras, an astronomer with the U.K.'s University of Cambridge.

"We don't know yet how common these planets are, but the observational evidence suggests that there could be more planets floating in between stars than orbiting them," he added."

National Geographic, How Planets Can Survive a Supernova, 2011

Planets can escape the gravitaional hold of their stars and roam in free space. This was only known recently, however this was portrayed in the Quran 1400 years before it was discovered.