TOI-1338 b

This article is about the circumbinary planet. For its star system with a similar name, see TOI-1338.

TOI-1338 b

Artist's impression of the TOI-1338 b exoplanet.
Discovery
Discovered by	Wolf Cukier
Discovery date	Summer 2019
Detection method	Transit
Orbital characteristics
Semi-major axis	0.4607+0.0084 −0.0088 AU [1]
Eccentricity	0.0331+0.0022 −0.0021
Orbital period (sidereal)	95.4001+0.0062 −0.0056 days
Inclination	90.494+0.013 −0.014 °
Star	TOI-1338
Physical characteristics
Mean radius	0.683 RJ [2]
Mass	11.3 M🜨 [2]

TOI-1338 b, also known as BEBOP-1b, ^[3] 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 (TESS). ^[4] It was discovered in the summer of 2019, and its discovery was announced 6 January 2020. ^{[5] [6]}

Located 1,318 light years away from Earth, the exoplanet has a radius 6.9 times that of Earth, ^[7] and a mass roughly 11.3 times that of Earth. ^[2]

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 (provided by volunteers of the Planet Hunters citizen science project), he found the planet on his third day of interning. ^{[7] [8]} Its discovery was announced on 6 January at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. ^[5] He and 6 other volunteers later co-authored a publication about the planet. ^[1]

Nomenclature

The initialism "TOI" in the name stands for "TESS Objects of Interest."

SOPHIE renaming petition

In February 2021, a petition was launched calling for the planet to be renamed SOPHIE in honor of late Scottish musician Sophie. ^[9] The petition was supported by Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek. ^[10] It was unsuccessful in officially renaming the planet, however the International Astronomical Union announced that the minor planet 1980 RE1 would be given the permanent name Sophiexeon in June 2021. ^[11]

References

1. Kostov, Veselin B.; Orosz, Jerome A.; Feinstein, Adina D.; Welsh, William F.; Cukier, Wolf; Haghighipour, Nader; Quarles, Billy; Martin, David V.; Montet, Benjamin T.; Torres, Guillermo; Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.; Barclay, Thomas; Boyd, Patricia; Briceno, Cesar; Cameron, Andrew Collier (7 May 2025). "TOI-1338: TESS' First Transiting Circumbinary Planet". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (6): 253. arXiv: 2004.07783 . Bibcode:2020AJ....159..253K. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab8a48 . ISSN   1538-3881.
2. "TOI-1338 b - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. 31 March 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
3. "New Tatooine-like multi-planetary system identified". University of Coimbra . June 12, 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
4. Wang, Mu-Tian; Liu, Hui-Gen (25 June 2024). "Photo-dynamical Analysis of Circumbinary Multi-planet System TOI-1338: A Fully Coplanar Configuration with a Puffy Planet". The Astronomical Journal. 168 (1): 31. arXiv: 2404.18415 . Bibcode:2024AJ....168...31W. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad4a60 . ISSN   1538-3881.
5. Hess, Abigail Johnson (10 December 2020). "17-year-old discovers planet 6.9 times larger than Earth on third day of internship with NASA". CNBC. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
6. Kazmierczak, Chris Smith and Jeanette (6 January 2020). "NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | TESS Satellite Discovered Its First World Orbiting Two Stars". NASA Scientific Visualization Studio. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
7. Pereira, Ivan. "New York teen discovers new planet while interning with NASA". ABC News. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
8. "Discovery Alert! High School Student Finds a World With Two Suns". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
9. Yeung, Vivian (3 February 2021). "Petition launched to name planet after SOPHIE". Crack Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
10. "SOPHIE fans call for NASA to name a planet after the late musician". Dazed. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
11. "WGSBN Bulletin, Volume 1, #3" (PDF). International Astronomical Union. 16 June 2021. ISSN   2789-2603. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2024.