Ref. 27588SIX stargazing pupils from Warminster are over the moon after scooping top prizes in a Europe-wide astronomy contest.

The 15-year-olds from Kingdown School came second and 15th in the European Southern Observatory research competition as the school won the UK's only prizes out of 176 entries.

Charles Franklin, Chris Baker and Jack Baker saw their study on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, earn second spot. Their prize is a trip to the ESO's headquarters near Munich in Germany. The trio combined research with experiments in the school labs, using their observations to investigate the possibility of life on Europa.

Daniel Holdsworth, Jermaine Oliphert and Andrew Robinson won a special map of the moon for their project on Callisto, another of Jupiter's moons.

Science teacher Catherine Wilson started up the school's astronomy club two years ago and helped the teams put their projects together.