This New York High School Student Had a NASA Internship 鈥� and on His Third Day Discovered a New Planet Revolving Around 2 Stars
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This article is one in a series at 蜜桃影视 that profiles the heroes, victories, success stories and random acts of kindness found at schools all across America. Read more of our recent inspiring profiles at The74Million.org/series/inspiring.
Astrophysicist-in-the-making Wolf Cukier is comfortable with high-level science, measuring distances in light years and observing planetary shifts. But occasionally, he lets his inner 17-year-old show through.
鈥淭hink of Star Wars鈥� Tatooine, Luke鈥檚 home planet,鈥� Wolf said on ABC鈥檚 lunchtime broadcast. 鈥淩emember that double sunset? It鈥檚 a planet like that one, with two stars.鈥�
Ah, good ol鈥� ! Now we get it.
Wolf, a senior at Scarsdale High School in the suburbs of New York City, found a new planet on the third day of his summer internship at in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA revealed earlier this month.
NASAGoddardPix: RT NASAGoddard: Three days into his internship, our very own Wolf Cukier used NASATESS data to discover a new planet orbiting two stars.?? Keep up the good work, Wolf!
鈿★笍鈥淣ASA Goddard High School Intern Discovers New Planet鈥� by NASA鈥�
鈥� rmnstr (@rmnstr)
Wolf鈥檚 discovery of the massive planet, seven times the size of Earth, is most remarkable because it is the first found to orbit two stars instead of one, NASA said in a press release.
鈥淗is job was to examine variations in star brightness,鈥� the release said. He was using the agency鈥檚 new , known as TESS.
https://www.facebook.com/493889833998399/photos/pcb.2479596322094397/2479593718761324/?type=3&theater
TESS, which is expanding our view of the universe, just happened to be pointed in the right direction when Wolf was assigned to study how two stars crossing paths would create an eclipse, he told .
鈥淭he planet blocked the light from those two stars, leading to a dip in the amount of light that reached the telescope,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was like, 鈥極h, there鈥檚 something here. That鈥檚 cool.鈥欌��
Besides his talent in science, Wolf seems to be a master of understatement.
17-year-old Wolf Cukier discovers new planet during NASA internship
鈥� EnglishForwardNews (@EngForwardNews)
鈥淭here are Ph.D. candidates who would die to have the kind of opportunity Wolf lucked into in this internship,鈥� his mother, Beth, told the network.
At home, where Star Wars posters decorate his room, Wolf and his family are hoping his 15 minutes of fame stretches out to the universe. The planet he discovered is currently named TOI 1338 b, for the Tess Object of Interest telescope, but the Cukiers are hoping for a name change that writes Wolf into eternity, he said.
鈥淢y brother鈥檚 idea is 鈥榃olftopia,鈥欌�� he told .
Wolf Cukier, 17 anos, trabalha na NASA, descobriu 2 s贸is…
鈥� c h e i a d e m a n i a s ? (@broclis)
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