Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
While most students spent time playing Xbox or partying with their friends, 15-year-old student Tom Wagg was busy discovering a new planet during a work-study program at Keele University in the UK.
According to the university, Wagg made the discovery while reviewing data collected by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) project, which tracks millions of stars in search of the telltale signs of planets passing in front of their host stars.
Wagg spotted a planetary star transit in the southern constellation of Hydra, and after two years of additional work, the now 17-year-old’s discovery was verified as a new planet. It was the 142nd new world discovered by the WASP collaboration, and while it has no official name as of yet, it has been given the catalogue number WASP-142b.
“I’m hugely excited to have a found a new planet and I’m very impressed that we can find them so far away,” Wagg said Wednesday in a statement. “The WASP software was impressive, enabling me to search through hundreds of different stars, looking for ones that have a planet.”
“Hot Jupiter” might not be alone in its solar system
WASP-142b is roughly the same size as Jupiter, and takes just two days to orbit around its host star, the university explained. With such a short orbital period, transits happen more frequently, which make planets like this easier to find – even if it is too far away to see directly.
The hemisphere facing the star is hot, due to exposure to the star’s rays, while the opposite side is far cooler, they added. This so-called “hot Jupiter” may not be the only planet in orbit around its host star either, as the university noted that this particular class of planet is believed to have migrated inwards through interactions with another world.
Following the initial discovery, WASP-142b was studied by astronomers from the University of Geneva and the University of Liege, who established that it had the correct size and mass to quality as an official planet. A paper reporting on the discovery is being prepared, and the planet will be named as part of a contest sponsored by the International Astronomical Union.
Wagg, who may be the youngest person ever to discover an extra-solar planet, is a pupil at Newcastle-under-Lyme School, located near Keele University in Staffordshire. He plans to study physics at a university, and was described by WASP project leader Professor Coel Hellier as someone who is “keen to learn about science” and who was “easy to train.”
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