Pasadena high school student discovered 1,500,000 unknown objects in space with his own AI and NASA data

A high-school student from Pasadena discovered 1.5 million previously unknown objects in space after creating his own AI algorithm, and landed himself an impressive cash prize. 

At an age when many of us were dodging our homework in favor of spending time watching TV, some teens really put the rest of us to shame. 

Like, the 12-year-old who built his own nuclear fusion machine, or the other 12-year-old who built his own nuclear fusion machine. 

Or Matteo Paz, who created his own AI algorithm to analyze NASA data and discovered more than a million unknown objects. 

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He built his own AI algorithm to analyze a huge amount of NASA data

It all kicked off in 2022, when Paz joined the Caltech Planet Finder Academy, which is set up to get high schoolers interested in astronomy. 

At the academy, he worked with mentor Davy Kirkpatrick on a project analyzing a huge archive of data from NASA’s NEOWISE satellite. 

Kirkpatrick initially wanted to trawl through the mountains of data by hand, but Paz had a better idea. 

He began working on creating his own AI algorithm, dubbed VARnet, that would be able to analyze all the data and detect any previously unknown objects all by itself.

The powerful bit of tech was able to catalogue around 1.9 million objects, and discovered that more than 1.5 million new discoveries, including supermassive black holes, newborn stars, and supernovae.

Oh, and did we mention he was just 18 when he did all this?

While the AI model he built is sure to have a huge impact on the world of astronomy, Paz reckons it could also have other important uses. 

“The model I implemented can be used for other time domain studies in astronomy, and potentially anything else that comes in a temporal format,” he explained in a press release from Caltech. 

 “I could see some relevance to (stock market) chart analysis, where the information similarly comes in a time series and periodic components can be critical.

“You could also study atmospheric effects such as pollution, where the periodic seasons and day-night cycles play huge roles.”

His impressive discovery landed him a top prize and a cash sum

Paz’s incredible work was entered into the Regeneron Science Talent Search last year, where he faced off against a host of other super-smart and talented kids.

At the event, Paz was announced the winner and won himself a $250,000 prize – and looked pretty shocked by his win.

Speaking after he scooped the top prize, Paz urged other youngsters to follow their dreams.

“To be able to contribute in a big way is really special to me,” he said after winning.

“If I could give one piece of advice to young people with ambition, just start it. You are never going to know before you start where you could go.

“Your first step will lead you to your next, and that’s how you do great things in life.”

As for how he plans to spend his winnings, he told Fox 11 that he plans to, very sensibly, put them aside for college, where we can safely assume he’ll do big things.

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