London - A 15-year-old schoolboy beat professional astronomers by discovering a new planet while on work experience.
Tom Wagg was helping out at Keele University, Staffordshire, by studying data collected by cameras in South Africa that monitor millions of stars in the Milky Way.
He spotted a tiny dip in the light of one star, 1 000 light-years away. After two years of observations scientists have confirmed it was due to a planet similar in size to Jupiter passing in front of the star.
Tom, now 17, is thought to be the youngest person to ever find a planet. The teenager, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, said: 'I’m hugely excited to have a found a new planet.”
Daily Mail