TOI-1338: The Planet With Two Suns That Physics Said Was Impossible

1,300 light-years away in the constellation Pictor, a planet 6.9 times the size of Earth circles two suns that orbit each other every 15 days, in a place theorists said a planet could barely form. TOI-1338 b takes about 95 days to complete one lap, watching its two stars race around each other six and a half times along the way. For years the physics of planet formation made worlds this close to a binary star look almost impossible to build. This episode follows the calm, unhurried case for how TOI-1338 b actually got there, and why it stopped being a paradox. 🔥 In this video you will discover: ✅ Why two suns make it so hard to build a planet ✅ How a 17-year-old NASA intern found TOI-1338 b in 2019 ✅ Why the planet's transits never repeat on schedule ✅ How TESS and the eleanor software confirmed the signal ✅ Why TOI-1338 b likely formed farther out and drifted inward ✅ How the hidden planet TOI-1338 c was found by starlight wobble ✅ Why TOI-1338 b's transits vanished after November 2023 📖 A patient look at how a planet 1,300 light-years away, circling two suns in Pictor, solved the puzzle of a world physics said could not exist. 👉 If you enjoy calm, deep dives into the universe, subscribe to The Unhurried Universe for more unhurried explorations of the cosmos. 0:00 A World Beneath Two Suns in Pictor 10:12 The Signal Whose Timing Was Wrong 21:55 Why Two Stars Make Planets Hard to Build 34:07 Finding Transits That Refuse a Rhythm 46:23 Six and a Half Circles in One Year 58:55 The Edge of the Calm Zone 1:11:20 A Second World and a Long Silence 1:23:39 Every Sunset Doubled 1:35:13 What We Still Cannot See 1:47:18 The Long Drift Inward Image credits · Kurt Nordstrom from Ponder, TX, USA (CC BY 2.0) Images from Wikimedia Commons, under the licences shown. #TheUnhurriedUniverse #TOI1338 #Exoplanets #CircumbinaryPlanet #TESS #Astronomy #SpaceScience #PlanetFormation #TwoSuns #NASA #Pictor #WolfCukier