While most kids his age were learning how to drive a car, 15-year-old Tom Wagg set his sights on something much bigger.

Wagg spotted a Jupiter-sized planet , the school announced on its website. The planet, which has yet to receive a name but is labeled WASP-142b, is some 1,000 light-years from Earth and orbits its star every two days, the report added.

This is an artist's rendition of how the planet might look.

(David A. Hardy)

"I'm hugely excited to have a found a new planet, and I'm very impressed that we can find them so far away," said Wagg in the university's release.

(PHOTOS: )

Wagg's discovery actually happened two years ago, but scientists have now confirmed that the discovery made during his internship is actually a planet. A contest has started to name the planet, but Wagg, now 17 years old, hopes he can suggest a name or two.

The temporary name WASP-142b signifies that the planet was found using the WASP software, and it was the 142nd planet that has been located by the program, the report added.

"WASP is a swarm of telescopes ," Dr. David Gregory-Kumar told the BBC. "They build up a picture of how bright each star usually is. But sometimes that brightness dips slightly when a planet passes in between us and the star it is orbiting."

NASA says outside our solar system, and the program is crucial to finding planets that might sustain life.

Major discoveries by amateur astronomers aren't unheard of. In 2012, two volunteer astronomers , the first time a quadruple star system had ever been found, io9 reported.

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