TOI-1338 b
TOI-1338 b, also known as BEBOP-1b, is a gas giant circumbinary planet orbiting around the binary star system of TOI-1338. First identified by then-17-year-old Wolf Cukier, it was the first circumbinary planet discovered using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It was discovered in the summer of 2019, and its discovery was announced 6 January 2020.
Planetary properties
TOI-1338 b is located 1,318 light years away from Earth. It has a radius 6.9 times that of Earth, and a mass roughly 11.3 times that of Earth.The planet orbits 2 stars, TOI-1338 A and TOI-1338 B, which closely orbit each other, making the planet circumbinary. Due to its circumbinary properties, Cukier has compared it to the fictional Star Wars planet of Tatooine, which also orbits 2 stars.
Discovery
Wolf Cukier, a 17-year-old attending Scarsdale High School in New York at the time, joined the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2019 to work as a summer intern. While studying data that was flagged as an eclipsing binary, he found the planet on his third day of interning. Its discovery was announced on 6 January at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. He and 6 other volunteers later co-authored a publication about the planet.The discovery of TOI-1338 c, a planet in the same system, was announced in 2023, about 4 years after TOI-1338 b was discovered.