An extrasolar planet approximately 117 light years away from earth has been discovered by a team of astronomers. It is believed to be the most eccentric planet in the observable universe, as per the team led by astronomer Stephen Kane from San Francisco State University.

Kane and his team also claimed that they detected a signal of reflected light from the extrasolar planet, dubbed as HD 20782. They revealed their discovery last month in The Astrophysical Journal.

A planet’s eccentricity is measured on a scale of 0 to 1 where 0 means perfect circular orbit. According to the team, HD 20782 is the most eccentric planet with orbital eccentricity of 0.96. It has been travelling in a flattened ellipse, which means the planet moves along a long path far from its host star and then goes on a fast slingshot around the star.

Our planet has orbital eccentricity of 0.017. The closest to the sun, Mercury, is the most eccentric planet in our solar system with an eccentricity of 0.205.

It is not easy to explain how an exoplanet like HD 20782 got an eccentric orbit, said Kane in a press release. “It's kind of like looking at a murder scene, like those people who examine blood spatter patterns on the walls. You know something bad has happened, but you need to figure out what it was that caused it”, he continued.

The exoplanet, HD 20782, has mass equal to our solar system’s Jupiter planet, but it is moving around its host star like a comet, as per Kane.

Astronomers believe HD 20782 will allow them to study how an eccentric with such orbital eccentricity respond to its star while passing painfully close to it.