A student at the University of Keele in the United Kingdom has indeed discovered a planet. But that isn’t the most interesting part, what makes this a good story is how it was done.
Tom Wagg, a fifteen year-old boy that has gusto for science, learned that his University had a group that studied planetary bodies outside of our solar system. Wagg was keen to be a part of this group as soon as he could.
The boy was assigned to look at data sets and find any proper planet candidates. Within the next three days of being a part of the club, Wagg discovered a planet.
Today, Wagg is 17 years old and researchers have proved the existence of the planet that Wagg has discovered. A remarkable feat for a student this young truly makes him a wunderkind.
The planet that he discovered is 1000 light years away from our galaxy. The planet is catalogued under the name WASP-142b, since it is the 142 planet discovered by the WASP collaboration. Apparently, the planet is the same size as Jupiter and takes only two days to orbit its star.
Wagg said, “I’m hugely excited to have found a new planet, and I’m very impressed that we can find them so far away.”
