NZ helps find 'exoplanets'

File photo / NZ Herald

New Zealand researchers have helped to discover a collection of Jupiter-sized free-floating planets that do not orbit stars.

The discovery of these "exoplanets" - to be published in tomorrow's scientific journal Nature - provides new knowledge about "lonely" planets in distant solar systems.

The scientists in the Japan/NZ project used a 1.8m telescope near Lake Tekapo.