A "rogue planet" has been discovered floating through the universe without a star.
The lonely world exists in almost total darkness.
Researchers say the alien world is located about 100 light years away, and has the catchy name CFBDSIR2149-0403.
It is said to be between 50-120 million year old, and formed either from a disk of congealing dust and debris like a normal planet, or in a similar way to stars without the mass to ignite.
It is moving in tandem with a group of about 30 stars said to have formed at about the same time. As a result it seems likely it was formed in a similar way, but was not massive enough to turn into a star itself.
Even so it weighs about 4-7 times the mass of Jupiter, and has a surface temperature of around 400C.
Either way, the planet ends up wandering on its own through space.
READ MORE:The full paper announcing the find
They are ridiculously hard to find, because most planets are discovered by the effect their gravitational pull has on their stars light. Without a local star, astronomers have to work harder to note its effects on nearby light sources.
The team involved in CFBDSIR2149-0403's discovery used the Canada France Hawaii Telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Co-author Etienne Artigau of the University of Montreal said that only one homeless planet was found in a scan that covered about 1,000 times the area of the Moon in the night sky.