California Teen Wins 2026 National Young Astronomer Award

Elizabeth Zhang of Cupertino, California, has earned the Astronomical League’s National Young Astronomer award for her study of circumbinary planets. Elizabeth Zhang, 17, earned the 2026 National Young Astronomer Award, granted by the Astronomical League.Summer Science Program International As a girl on camping trips around California, Elizabeth Zhang felt an awe for the night sky. In sixth grade, she saw beauty in astronomical images. In high school, she discovered the astronomy club, where she could blend art and science. “I really started to love it once I actually delved into researching it,” says Zhang, 17, a rising senior at The Harker School in San Jose. Her zest led to a search for planets orbiting binary stars, with results that earned her the 2026 National Young Astronomer Award from the Astronomical League. Zhang, of Cupertino, California, accepted the honor on August 15th at the League’s annual meeting, in Covington, Kentucky. Michael Telesco of New Canaan, Connecticut, came in second for his study of solar-system-like organization around a Sun-like star. Zhang and Telesco received plaques and refractor telescopes from Explore Scientific, an award patron. They also presented their work at the convention. Third place went to Mohd Iftakhar Tarunno ofUpper Darby, Pennsylvania, and Julian Du of Darien, Connecticut. Finalists were Safilin Salma of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania; Michelle Sebastian of Simi Valley, California, and Shravan Calvin Sridhara of San Jose, California. The National Young Astronomer Award, in its 34th year, honors the nation’s brightest high school minds. Winners have gone on to careers in the sciences, such as astrophysicist Maxwell Moe at the University of Wyoming, who won in 2003. AL President Chuck Allen, who founded the NYA award, said the competition shows high school students are cracking Big Data from the most advanced telescopes. Zhang told Sky & Telescope that her interest in the stars deepened with The Harker School’s STEM-intensive curriculum. In the astronomy club, she learned from astrophysicist Jian Ge (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory) to write computer code to search telescope databases. Then Zhang learned of planets that orbit two-star systems, first clearly detected in 2011. Binary stars should eclipse each other predictably, but some don’t. Zhang used those “wobbles” to look for planet candidates. Her paper is “Orbital Reconstruction and Discovery of Hidden Circumbinary Planets through Eclipse Timing Residuals and N-Body Dynamics.” Earlier this year, her project earned a grand prize at the Regeneron Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix. Watch Zhang present her work at the Regeneron conference here: Zhang says she has not decided on a college or coursework, but she is considering astrophysics. She’s also finishing illustrations for a book she has written about a girl traveling the universe. Zhang says she came to astronomy through her art practice. The rising senior at The Harker School of San Jose is also illustrating a book she has written with paintings such as this study in oils.