A 15-Year-Old May Be The Youngest To Have Ever Found A Planet

When a planet passes in front of its host star, the light gives a tell-tale dip — and that's exactly what Wagg noticed when combing data for a project called WASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets), according to a university press release.

The discovery took two years of observations to confirm. Wagg, now 17, may be the youngest person to have ever discovered a planet.

The planet is also estimated to be the size of Jupiter, but unlike our Jupiter, which takes 12 Earth years to orbit the sun, its trip around the star is a mere two days.

The planet doesn't have a name quite yet: As the project's 142nd discovery, it's been aptly catalogued as WASP-142b. The International Astronomical Union has held contests to name celestial bodies before, and it may be possible for Tom to contribute a suggestion.

"Tom is keen to learn about science, so it was easy to train him to look for planets," Professor Coel Hellier, who leads the WASP project, said in the release.