Rogue planets that float freely through space without a star to orbit are very difficult for astronomers to detect.
"Assuming that there is a rogue planet for every star in the Milky Way, and we assume the solar system will be in a similar region of the galaxy over its lifetime, then I would estimate that the likelihood of a rogue planet coming within the solar system over the next 1,000 years to be a 1 in a billion chance," Garrett Brown, a celestial mechanics and computational physics researcher at the University of Toronto, told"Here, I define 'coming within the solar system' to...
He continued:"It's difficult to say how likely it would be to actually collide with Earth without a more detailed analysis, but it would be much, much less likely. Thus, I would estimate the likelihood of a rogue planet coming closer to the Earth than Mars or Venus to be 1 in 2 trillion in the next 1,000 years. If there is one heading our way within the next 1,000 years, it would currently be about 0.2 light-years away.
Even if a rogue planet came close to the Earth, the interaction may not even destroy the planet if there wasn't a direct hit. "It would need to come close enough to Earth to either collide with it or, a bit less unlikely, alter its orbit. If it does collide, this would be at high speed and likely destroy Earth, if it is comparable in mass and density to Earth," Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University, told"A planet like Jupiter might even swallow Earth. Or Earth might come out the other way if it is a grazing encounter, but probably without its atmosphere," he said.
Our galaxy may be teeming with rogue planets, gravitationally unbound to any star. An international team of scientists, led by Polish astronomers, has announced the discovery of the smallest Earth-sized free-floating planet found to date [read more:
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