Runaway Planets May Zoom Through Space at 30 Million KPH

Astronomers say lone, runaway worlds known as hypervelocity planets that cruise the cosmos at speeds of nearly 50 million kilometers per hour may be among the fastest objects in outer space.

The search for the existence of hypervelocity planets began after the discovery of hypervelocity stars seven years ago.

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics say their findings indicate that hypervelocity planets do exist, and they are produced the same way as hypervelocity stars - a too-close encounter with the gravity of a galaxy’s central supermassive black hole.