Scientists in California said that a planet 800 light years from Earth has been squashed into a football shape by the gravity exerted by its sun.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, wrote in a recent edition of Nature that the planet WASP-12b is being torn apart by the gravitational pull.

Astronomer Jonathan Fortney said that the process is giving scientists a look at the last stages of a dying planet.

WASP-12b, which has about 10 million years left before it dies, is 75 times closer to its sun than Earth is to our sun.

Fortney told the Santa Cruz (Calif.,) Sentinel in a story published on Friday," The solar system we live in is one kind of solar system. We're finding truly bizarre configurations out there."

The process tearing WASP-12b apart is a much more violent version of the gravitational pull between Earth and its moon that causes tides to move in and out. (With Input From Agencies)