Mysterious ‘rogue planet’ floating through space may be even odder than we thought

A rogue planet spotted wandering through space on its own may be even stranger than scientists expected, after new analysis with NASA’s Spitzer space telescope.

The object, CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9, is 100 light years away from Earth – and was spotted in 2012.

Scientists are now puzzling over what the mysterious object is – is it a rogue, free-floating planet, or something even stranger?

Scientists now believe that the planet – found in 2012 – might be a ‘brown dwarf’ – an object too small to be a star, but too big to be a planet.