A FIRST-YEAR university student, who took up a course after being made redundant, has helped discover a new planet.
Kevin Apps, 25, studying astrophysics and physics at Sussex University, came across the planet while scrutinising 300 stars three weeks into research for a project.
Using the theory that solar systems comparable to our own are most likely to harbour life, Mr Apps based his search around 30 stars that were ''dead ringers for the Sun'' - having the same size, mass, temperature and luminosity.
The undergraduate -almost as a joke - then sent his ideas via e-mail to the scientists Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler of the San Francisco Group, a team of planet-hunting researchers. Following his advice, they identified a planet orbiting one of the stars. It is called HD187123, lies 154 light years from Earth and is 200 times larger.
The findings of the SF Group, with Mr Apps accredited, have been accepted by the Publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Mr Apps said: ''Marcy and Butler have been working on this for 10 years and they are world famous. I'm just an undergraduate who's done a couple of weeks' work.''
