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Lately, astronomers have been searching for life on the MOONS of planets, but they’ve also discovered a new planet–one that wandering through the galaxy "homeless," rather than orbiting around a star.

Researcher Jonathan Gagné says, "Over the past few years, several objects of this type have been identified, but their existence could not be established (before)."

Astrophysicist Étienne Artigau says, "Although theorists had established the existence of this type of very cold and young planet, one had never been observed until (now)."
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Astronomers have discovered another potentially habitable planet–that’s 7 times the mass of Earth. Six planets orbit dwarf star HD 40307g, and one of them is believed have the potential to support human life.

The planet seems to be rotating on its own axis, instead of having one face permanently turned toward its sun, meaning it has an Earth-like day and night cycle. This is a major indicator of potential life. Also, it orbits at a distance of 55.8 million miles from its sun, which puts it in its host star’s habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.

It’s close by (space travel-wise, anyway)–only 44 light years away. It’s so close that astronomers may be able to spy on it with telescopes.
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