Tom Wagg

Tom Wagg
Born (1997-11-30) November 30, 1997
Stoke-on-Trent, England
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationsPhD Graduate, May 2025 University of Washington
Websitehttps://www.tomwagg.com/

Thomas James Wagg (born 30 November 1997) is an English astrophysicist, with interests in massive stars and gravitational waves. He has a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Washington.[1] He is believed to be the youngest person to have discovered a planet.[2][3]

Early life and education

Wagg was born in Stoke-on-Trent, a green country-side city located in Staffordshire, England. He attended Newcastle-under-Lyme school, where he attained an A* in all 12 GCSE exams, including astronomy.[2][4] While in high school, he completed a work experience program at Keele University on an exoplanet search project under Professor Coel Hellier.[4]

He graduated from Harvard College in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Astrophysics and a secondary in Computer Science with the distinction cum laude. While there, his research program spanned luminous red galaxies with Daniel Eisenstein and population genetics with Michael Desai, ultimately culminating in a senior thesis under Selma de Mink on the LISA mission’s ability to detect black hole-neutron star binaries.[5] As an undergraduate, he also served the Harvard Library Judaica Division, pioneering the Alma Booster Chrome Extension used by the department to streamline record-keeping.[6][7]

Exoplanet discovery

In 2015, Tom discovered a planet during a work experience program for the astrophysics department of Keele University.[4] His work contributed to the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), an international consortium of academic institutions that use transit photometry to detect exoplanets.[8][2] On the third day of his internship, Tom noticed a small irregular dip in the light intensity of a star, a common sign that an orbiting planet is passing between a star and the observation point. In 2016, researchers from the University of Liege and University of Geneva confirmed that fade was caused by a previously unknown exoplanet.[9][10] Having made the discovery at 15 years old, Tom is thought to be the youngest person to discover a planet.[2][3]

The planet, located over 2,000 light years away from Earth, was cataloged as WASP-142b, the 142nd planet discovered in the WASP survey.[11] Researchers described the planet as a typical hot Jupiter, similar in size and structure to the largest planet in the Solar System but exhibiting a two-day orbit.[12][13]

Early career

Wagg completed a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Washington in May 2025.[1][14] His interests lie in massive, binary stars and gravitational waves. His notable works include investigating massive double compact objects that are detectable by LISA[15] and producing an open-source Python package called LEGWORK for performing similar studies.[16]

Awards

  • In 2020, he was awarded the Leo Goldberg Prize in Astronomy recognizing excellence in a senior thesis.[5][17]
  • In 2023, he was selected as a Kavli Summer Fellow.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b "Tom Wagg | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington". astro.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  2. ^ a b c d "This teenager discovered a new planet on his third day at work". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  3. ^ a b "15-year-old single-handedly discovers new planet". The Independent. 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  4. ^ a b c University, Keele. "2015". Keele University. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  5. ^ a b "Tom Wagg receives a Senior Goldberg Prize along with Noel Chou who was awarded the Junior Goldberg Prize". astronomy.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  6. ^ "HJ Alma Booster". Ex Libris Developer Network. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  7. ^ HJ Alma Booster, hl-judaica-division, 2023-05-03, retrieved 2023-06-12
  8. ^ "15-Year-Old Intern Discovers New Planet". Time. 12 June 2015. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  9. ^ "Staffordshire schoolboy discovers new planet". BBC News. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  10. ^ Hellier, C; et al. (22 November 2016). "WASP-South transiting exoplanets: WASP-130b, WASP-131b, WASP-132b, WASP-139b, WASP-140b, WASP-141b and WASP-142b". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 465 (3): 3693–3707. arXiv:1604.04195. doi:10.1093/mnras/stw3005.
  11. ^ "15-year-old intern discovers new planet light-years away from Earth". TODAY.com. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  12. ^ "Exoplanet-catalog". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  13. ^ Sarkar, Monica (2015-06-11). "New planet discovered by 15-year-old intern". CNN. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  14. ^ "Tom Wagg". www.tomwagg.com. Retrieved 2025-09-17.
  15. ^ Wagg, T.; Broekgaarden, F. S.; de Mink, S. E.; Frankel, N.; van Son, L. A. C.; Justham, S. (2022-10-01). "Gravitational Wave Sources in Our Galactic Backyard: Predictions for BHBH, BHNS, and NSNS Binaries Detectable with LISA". The Astrophysical Journal. 937 (2): 118. arXiv:2111.13704. Bibcode:2022ApJ...937..118W. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8675. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 244714732.
  16. ^ Wagg, T.; Breivik, K.; de Mink, S. E. (2022-06-01). "LEGWORK: A Python Package for Computing the Evolution and Detectability of Stellar-origin Gravitational-wave Sources with Space-based Detectors". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 260 (2): 52. arXiv:2111.08717. Bibcode:2022ApJS..260...52W. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac5c52. ISSN 0067-0049. S2CID 244270039.
  17. ^ "Tom Wagg wins the Harvard Leo Goldberg prize for his senior thesis | Selma E. de Mink". 2020-06-01. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  18. ^ "Student participants | Kavli Summer Program in Astrophysics". kspa.soe.ucsc.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
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