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Mixed-Up Planet Orbits Backward

By JEANNA BRYNER and ROBERT ROY BRITT
,
Space.com
posted: 181 DAYS 5 HOURS AGO
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(Aug. 12) - Planets orbit stars in the same direction that the stars rotate. They all do. Except one.
© Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved.
2009-08-12 18:09:43

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A newfound planet orbits the wrong way, backward compared to the rotation of its host star. Its discoverers think a near-collision may have created the retrograde orbit, as it is called. The star and its planet, WASP-17, are about 1,000 light-years away. The setup was found by the UK\'s Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery was announced today but has not yet been published in a journal.