# Are there any stars not in any galaxy, just alone in space?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 14, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525 "2006-07-14T19:41:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525/1 "2006-07-14T19:41:33Z")
I’m curious; it seems that at least the vast majority of stars are to be found in galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. Some galaxies are big; others, like the Magellanic Clouds, not so big.
But are there any stars not in any galaxy? Just travelling happily along on their own?
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525/2 "2006-07-14T19:47:47Z")
Yes.
No cite right now, sorry. But yes there are.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525/3 "2006-07-14T19:52:29Z")
[Orphan stars discovered](http://www.pparc.ac.uk/frontiers/latest/update.asp?article=1U7&style=update&fdmode=text)
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525/4 "2006-07-14T19:57:37Z")
Yes, stars can end up between galaxies: [Rogue star shown the galactic door](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6990)
> [@](#):
>
> Astronomers have spotted the first star known to be hurtling out of the Milky Way. And an encounter with the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s heart may be the cause of the star’s exodus.
>
> The star is whizzing through the galactic suburbs at 670 kilometres per second (415 miles per second) and could leave the galaxy within 80 to 100 million years.
>
> “It’s the first clear-cut case of a star that’s no longer gravitationally bound to the Milky Way,” says Warren Brown, an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the study, soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Gravitational interactions between galaxies can also send [streamers of stars into the void.](http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/ap020502.html)
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-stars-not-in-any-galaxy-just-alone-in-space/364525/5 "2006-07-14T19:58:36Z")
More:
[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=384](http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=384)