Work experience students at Keele University discover 'new planet'

The 'exoplanet' was discovered by a group on work experience Credit: Keele University

Students on work experience at Keele University in Staffordshire have found a new planet.

Twenty four students aged 15 to 17, from local schools and colleges came together for the week to work on a research project that aimed to discover exoplanets - planets that orbit other stars- and they've found a new and particularly strong "exoplanetary candidate".

The Neptune-sized planet has a 19-day orbit cycle around a star that's like the sun. The young team say it's around a hundred times fainter than you can see with the naked eye - but they're very excited to get their results verified next week by astronomy experts in the Canary Islands.

800 light years away in the constellation of Virgo. The star was previously an anonymous object, about 100 times fainter than you could see with the naked eye.

The results of their work are feeding into Keele's ongoing research into exoplanetary systems and binary stars and some of the discoveries will be followed-up next week.