The planet is located so far away - in the constellation of Hydra at the southern end of the Milky Way - it cannot be seen directly through a telescope, but is thought to be about the same size as Jupiter, orbiting its star every two days.

Tom, now 17, said: ‘‘It’s really exciting. I was amazed. It’s definitely something you can tell people about.

‘‘It’s a gas planet and is known as a ’hot Jupiter’. As it’s so close to a star, there could be other planets around it.’’

The discovery makes the student from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, one of the youngest people to find a new planet.

It has been catalogued as Wasp-142b as it is the 142nd to be discovered by the Wasp project. The Wasp (Wide Angle Search for Planets) consortium also involves scientists from the Universities of Warwick, Cambridge and St Andrews, working with scientists in Switzerland, France and Belgium. Tom likened stargazing to looking back in time, because the stars are so far away from Earth we see them as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago. His interest in astronomy dates back to when he was given a telescope when he was seven.

While studying for his GCSEs, one of his teachers recommended that he approach Keele to gain a greater insight into the subject. The teenager soon found himself studying data collected through surveys of the night skies, where millions of stars were being monitored.

He said: ‘‘The Wasp software was impressive, enabling me to search through hundreds of different stars, looking for ones that have a planet.

‘‘I was initially looking at the light curve when I noticed it. I spoke to staff at the university and they said it looked interesting.’’

Tom achieved 12 GCSEs, all at A, and is now part-way through his A-levels. He hopes to study physics at university and work in the fields of astrophysics or particle physics.

Professor Coel Hellier, who leads the Wasp project, said: ‘‘Tom is keen to learn about science, so it was easy to train him to look for planets.’’

The Daily Telegraph, London