TOI-1338 b, also nicknamed Wolftopia, is a gas giantcircumbinaryexoplanet in the constellationPictor orbiting around the binary star systemTOI-1338, first identified by then-17-year-old Wolf Cukier. It's the first circumbinary planet discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).[4] It was found on 31 July 2019, and announced on 6 January 2020.[5][6] In terms of diameter, it's around 6.9 times the diameter of Earth.[7] It orbits 1318 light years away from Earth[3], which calculates to 12.5 quadrillion kilometers, or 7.7 quadrillion miles.
Wolf's brother, Ben Cukier, suggested the name Wolftopia, as a combination of the words wolf and city, although Wolf said he didn't particularly like the name.[8]
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, later to find TOI-1338 b on his third day of interning.[9] He studied data that was flagged as an eclipsing binary provided by volunteers of the Planet Hunters citizen science project.[10] He and 6 of the volunteers are co-authors of the publication regarding TOI-1338 b.[1] Cukier then attended Princeton University, and graduated in 2024.
The discovery of TOI-1338 b was announced on 6 January at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.[11] In February 2021, a petition was launched calling for TOI-1338 b to be renamed SOPHIE in honor of the recently deceased British musician Sophie.[12][13] Both Charlie XCX and Caroline Polachek[12] supported the petition, but it ended up unsuccessful. However, the International Astronomical Union announced that that the minor planet 1980 RE1 would permanently get the name Sophiexeon (after Sophie's full name).
