Looking to the sky, retired Oklahoma teacher says he's discovered a new planet

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Retired Oklahoma teacher Phillip Scott now spends most of his time looking to the sky.

He works with a group managed by amateur astronomers. They observe stars from all over the world, whenever they can.

"I was the fortunate one to be in the right place at the right time," Scott said.

Scott said he discovered a new exoplanet at his own OKSky Observatory.

He picked up the first transit in December, the second one in February, and the third one in May. Each sighting sixty-six days apart, meaning the planet has a sixty-six-day orbit.

"Until it gets confirmed it's just a candidate. But the possibility is very real that we're going to get a confirmation for this. We feel pretty confident about it." said Scott.

This is the first planet discovered totally by an amateur astronomer working with a group managed by amateurs since William Herschel's discovery of Uranus in 1781.

Scott works with an international group called the Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project. It's led by Albert Caballero, of Spain, who Scott said has submitted the paperwork regarding the discovery to the Cornell University site known as arXiv.org.

It's a repository of electronic preprints in math, physics astronomy and other fields and Scott said it's the first step in obtaining official recognition for the previously unknown exoplanet.

The discovery of a new exoplanet won't become official until all the information is reviewed by several professional astronomers.

Scott says he's confident he and the Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project have the data to back up the discovery.

"We'll hopefully add some more data to it come next spring or winter. And we'll have an even bigger case for it"

The exoplanet is orbiting a star called GJ 3470, Scott said. The new planet is being called GJ3470 c.