A gas cloud, and a room full of astronomers
The American Astronomical Society's winter meeting is where professional astronomers present new work to each other. In January 2017 one of the presenters was eleven. Sky and Telescope, the magazine of record for the field, wrote him up under the observation that an 11-year-old astronomer had shone at the meeting.
The subject was a gas cloud in the Milky Way, the interstellar material from which stars form. CBS Texas covered him days later as an 11-year-old studying intergalactic space at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where he was taking courses while still of primary school age.
Two brothers, one weekend
In May 2017 the family produced a story that news desks could not resist. Cannan, 11, finished high school. His older brother Carson, 14, graduated from TCU with a physics degree. The Washington Post covered both ceremonies in a single piece; Global News in Canada and the South China Morning Post carried it internationally.
The SCMP's headline caught the dynamic exactly: the boy genius graduating with a physics degree, and his brother, 11, not far behind. Carson had set the template; Cannan was following it on a similar schedule.
The household
Their mother, Claretta, home-schooled both boys. That is the single structural fact behind the timetable. Without year-group constraints, a child who is ready for university mathematics at nine can take university mathematics at nine, and a family can arrange a week around a campus rather than a school day.
Cannan's stated plan was a double major in astrophysics and engineering, a combination aimed squarely at spaceflight. His ambition, reported at the time, was to become an astronaut.
What is documented since
The trail in these sources ends in 2017. A user-edited online biography reports an appearance on the television programme MythBusters Jr. in 2019; none of the sources used here confirms it, and it is recorded on this page as unverified rather than as fact.
No source used here documents his degree, his graduation or his current work. A boy who was 11 in 2017 would be around 21 as this page is written, and what he is doing now is simply not in the published record available.
Why presenting at the AAS is the real marker
Early-college stories usually rest on enrolment: an age, an institution, a photograph on a campus lawn. Presenting research at a professional society meeting is a different category of evidence. It means a piece of work was prepared to a standard the field accepts, submitted through the ordinary channels, and put in front of people whose job is to find the errors in it.
The American Astronomical Society meeting runs on posters and short talks by graduate students and working researchers. An 11-year-old in that room is not being humoured by a university admissions office; he is participating, at the lowest rung, in the same process every professional astronomer uses. That is a narrower claim than 'child genius' and a considerably stronger one.
Watch: Cannan Huey-You on camera
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cannan Huey-You | United States | Presenting research on a Milky Way gas cloud at the American Astronomical… | Age 11 |
| Franklin Wang | United States | He pointed a machine-learning model at public telescope archives and six u | Age 17 |
| Pranav Sivakumar | United States | Two years after losing a spelling bee on cyanophycean, he was hunting lens | — |
| Ana Humphrey | United States | First place, 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search | — |
| Wolf Cukier | United States | Spotting TOI 1338 b, TESS's first circumbinary planet | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Presented research on a Milky Way gas cloud at the American Astronomical Society meeting at 11 in January 2017 (Sky and Telescope)
- Was taking classes at Texas Christian University as a child (CBS Texas)
- Finished high school at 11 in May 2017, alongside his brother Carson's TCU graduation at 14
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- The reported 2019 MythBusters Jr. appearance is not confirmed by any source used here
- No documentation of his degree, graduation or current work
- No IQ figure or test score is published
Questions people ask about Cannan Huey-You
How old is Cannan Huey-You?
He was born in 2005, which made him 11 when he presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in January 2017. No exact birth date is published here.
What research did Cannan Huey-You present?
Work on a gas cloud in the Milky Way, presented at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in January 2017 and written up by Sky and Telescope.
Who is Carson Huey-You?
His older brother, who graduated from Texas Christian University with a physics degree at 14 in May 2017, the same weekend Cannan finished high school.
Where did Cannan Huey-You study?
He was taking classes at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth while still of primary school age, after being home-schooled by his mother Claretta.
What did he want to become?
An astronaut. He planned a double major in astrophysics and engineering.
Was Cannan Huey-You on MythBusters Jr.?
A user-edited online biography says he appeared on the programme in 2019, but none of the sources used here confirms it. It is recorded as unverified.
Where is Cannan Huey-You now?
No source used here documents his life after 2017. His degree, graduation and current work are not in this material.
Is Cannan Huey-You on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on him was found, though his brother's story has been widely covered alongside his.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Cannan’s story?
What did Cannan Huey-You present at 11?
Which university was he taking classes at?
What did he say he wanted to become?
Sources
- 11-Year-Old Studies Intergalactic Space At TCU — CBS Texas, 2017-01-12
- 11-year-old Astronomer Shines at AAS Meeting — Sky & Telescope, 2017-01-09
- Genius brothers, 11 and 14, graduate from high school, university — Global News, 2017-05
- Boy genius Carson Huey-you, 14, graduates with physics degree. His brother, 11, isn't far behind — South China Morning Post, 2017-05
- Kid genius brothers, 11 and 14, graduate high school and college this weekend — The Washington Post, 2017-05-12
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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