Anna Hartz
17-Year-Old Cracks Space Mystery with AI
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A lot of high school students spend their summer working part-time jobs or preparing for college.
But one student in California spent his summer digging through space data. What he found was nothing short of incredible.
Matteo Paz is a high school senior from Pasadena. He used artificial intelligence to uncover 1.5 million space objects that had never been identified before.
His discovery shocked the scientific community and earned him a major science prize, writes WP.
He developed the AI model during a summer research program at Caltech. He was working with astronomers and a mentor named Davy Kirkpatrick.
They gave him access to data from a retired NASA telescope. Matteo built a computer program that could search through the telescope’s archive.
It spotted cosmic objects no one had noticed before.
The data came from a mission that ended years ago. Still, the information had a lot to offer.
Matteo’s AI found patterns in the data that human researchers might have missed. The objects can now be studied by scientists around the world.
His work was published in The Astronomical Journal. He was also awarded first place in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
That win came with a $250,000 prize. The contest is one of the biggest and most respected science competitions for high school students in the U.S.
Matteo now works as an IPAC fellow at Caltech. He helps analyze data from missions backed by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Even though he’s still in high school, his research is already making a big impact.
His AI model could help astronomers process large datasets faster and with more accuracy.
That might speed up future discoveries. His mentor, Kirkpatrick, said the win was one of the proudest moments of his career.
Matteo’s story shows what can happen when young people are given the right tools and support.
He didn’t just earn a prize. He pushed the limits of space science.