Normally the direction of a plant's orbit and its star's rotation is alike. But, a planet has been found by the astronomers, which orbits in the opposite direction of the rotation of its host star. David Anderson of Keele University made the discovery along with Geneva Observatory's Amaury Triaud.

Astronomers are of the view that a near-collision may have moved the newfound plant into the retrograde orbit.

It was the 17th extra-solar planet to be discovered by the Wide Area Search for Planets group of U. K. universities and named WASP-17b.

Sara Seager, an astrophysicist said, "I would have to say this is one of the strangest planets we know about."

WASP-17b, which is 1,000 light years away from earth, is twice in size of Jupiter; however it's mass is only half of Solar system's biggest planet.

The discovery is yet to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.