NASA intern Wolf Cukier identified circumbinary planet TOI-1338 b in TESS data

Seventeen-year-old NASA intern Wolf Cukier helped identify a rare circumbinary planet, TOI-1338 b, after spotting an unusual anomaly in data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, during his 2019 summer internship at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Cukier was analyzing light curves, which track changes in a star’s brightness. A drop in brightness can indicate that an object has passed in front of the star and blocked some of its light. While reviewing the data, he noticed that one dip appeared at an unusual time.

That anomaly led to the identification of TOI-1338 b, a planet orbiting two stars rather than one. Such circumbinary planets are harder to detect because the stars’ own orbital motion changes the timing and duration of observed transits.

According to the research paper titled TOI-1338: TESS First Transiting Circumbinary Planet, the system is located about 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. The two central stars are different in size: one is about 10 per cent more massive than the Sun, while the other is cooler and dimmer. The planet is a giant about seven times the size of Earth.

At first, Cukier thought the signal might be an eclipse, which is expected in binary-star systems. But a closer look at the periodogram suggested an anomaly. Instead of dismissing the dip as a glitch, he flagged it for further attention, prompting wider support from researchers across multiple organizations.

The discovery was not an isolated result. Continued study of the system later led researchers to identify a second planet, TOI-1338 c, also called BEBOP-1c. The second planet was detected using the radial velocity technique, which measures small changes in a star’s motion caused by the gravitational pull of orbiting planets.

The article presents the TOI-1338 system as a rare and valuable opportunity to study how planets form in complex binary-star environments. It also describes the finding as an important moment for NASA, showing that TESS could identify difficult planetary systems even when the data appeared irregular.

The account emphasizes that the discovery illustrates the continued importance of human observation in science. While computers can follow established rules, the article argues that people remain especially effective at recognizing when something does not fit expectations.