Teenager intern at NASA discovered a new planet orbiting two stars

In the summer of 2019, a 17-year-old high school student named Wolf Cukier arrived at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center ready for a summer of learning on their prestigious and coveted new internship. He was tasked with examining data collected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which searches the universe for two-star systems. Only three days after starting his new job, the teenager spotted a blemish in the data of a system that indicated the presence of a previously unknown planet. A year and a half later, NASA released what it knows about this newly discovered planet named TOI-1338b.

TOI-1338 b is considered a neptune-like gaseous exoplanet, about 6.9 times the size of Earth. An exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system. This example is 1317 light years from Earth and revolves around its two stars every 95 days or so. The discovery of planets such as TOI-1338b is a primary function of NASA’s TESS. The system documents two-star systems to track variations in light. Known as the eclipse binary, one star can sometimes block or eclipse the other from a point of view here on Earth.

While studying the graphs of such interruptions of light in a particular eclipsing binary system – with one star larger than our sun and another smaller star orbiting each other – Cukier noticed an anomaly that could not be awarded neither of the two stars. The blip was actually caused by the trajectory of TOI-1338b, which is not periodic and appears irregular due to the movement of the stars.

Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, told CBS News, “TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars.” Once the Distant World was suspected, NASA used a system known as Eleanor to analyze a lot of data related to the TOI-1338 systems. The results proved that the starlight deviations were actually a planet rather than random asteroids. TOI-1338 b joins a list of several other circumbinary planets (orbiting two stars) known to NASA. Many more are likely to be discovered as TESS continues to track fluctuations in starlight across the universe.

The discovery of TOI-1338b was certainly a plus for the academic application of a bright teenager, but the new planet also fascinated the internet. In NASA’s depiction of the gaseous planet, the pastel colors of its surface have inspired admiration for the beautiful planet. The Internet has particularly admired a created by a bot artistic interpretation of the new planet. While there may be ways to predict how a planet will look using data on its makeup and size, it is impossible to photograph or visualize a planet this far away using current technology. While we know TOI-1338b is there from data analyzed by Cukier and NASA, for now we’ll just have to imagine what this new world will look like.

A 17-year-old named Wolf Cukier discovered a new gaseous planet on his third day as an intern at NASA in the summer of 2019.

Along with the discovery, renderings of images of the planet were unveiled and they completely stunned the internet.

look at this planet that NASA has found… it is magnificent… pic.twitter.com/Msn7wyVtGd

– jessi a komaeda brainrot (@paintwater_boba) January 16, 2021

The planet, TOI-1338b, is larger than Earth and so far away that its existence was only discovered by analyzing the “blips” of light as it orbits its system.

TOI-1338 b joins a growing list of circumbinary planets that orbit two-star systems.

Learn more about TOI-1338b with NASA.

h / t: [NPR]

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