Wondering what you can do to secure a job after your internship? Well this high school student from New York discovered a new planet on just his third day at NASA. So take it from him, keep reaching for the stars.
Throughout his two month immersion at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 17-year-old Wolf Cukier was tasked to analyze data collected from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The space telescope is used to locate planets outside of our solar system. Cukier was looking for changes in the light of two stars that might suggest the shadow of a planet passing by it. He approached his mentor when he saw a dip in the data. Upon further inspection with the help of other scientists, they found Cukier’s findings to be true. The planet was named TOI 1338 b, after Luke Skywalker’s home ‘Tatooine’. NASA found similarities with the planet from Star Wars because it’s circumbinary — it orbits around two stars instead of one. However, TOI 1338 b is not habitable unlike its fictional counterpart.
When the generated images of the newly discovered planet came out, internet users were mesmerized by its color palette. BTS fans even referred to a specific cover art that they reminded of.
tell me why this looks like BTS World’s planet on the cover art 😮 https://t.co/Mcp46tFFiS pic.twitter.com/ULwxJMzRCh
— tiny⁷ (@lifegoesevenn) January 18, 2021
TOI 1338 b’s pastel watercolor appearance also resembled the music video of ‘Dangerous Woman’ by Ariana Grande.
ummm ariana found it first??? https://t.co/i56jb1DYGz pic.twitter.com/tl9E8ByWbO
— chingon (@UrenaDanniel) January 17, 2021
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