15 years old to find new planets

Tom Wagg, a high school student in England defeated professional astronomers, becoming the youngest to discover a new planet.

High school students find new planets

In 2013, 15-year-old Tom Wagg was a high school student at Newcastle-under-Lyme school. Passionate about science, the boy participated in astronomy research at Keele University, Staffordshire, England. He joined the research team on data collected from cameras in South Africa, tracking millions of stars in the Milky Way.

The new planet is about the same size as Jupiter

He happened to find a small decrease in the light of a star 1,000 light-years from Earth.

For two years, Tom and the scientists followed this abnormality. So far in 2015, scientists have recognized the star's light drop because of a planet in front and dims its light.

Tom Wagg is the youngest person to find a new planet - (Phys.org screenshot)

Tom, 17, said: " I am extremely happy to discover the new planet and it is great, even though it is very far from Earth but we can still find it."

The new planet is about the same size as Jupiter - the solar system's largest planet . It revolves around a star south of the Constellation (Hydra).

South Africa 's recording equipment is part of the WASP wide-angle planetary research project, similar to the device operating in La Palma, in the Canary Islands, with the aim of tracking millions of stars in the sky. North.

Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 planets around different stars in recent years from NASA's Kepler space telescope.

With this discovery, Tom has become the youngest person to find a new planet.