Most stars in the Universe do not exist in single systems like our Sun; most exist in binary systems. Binary systems contain two stars that are gravitationally bound to one another. These systems can contain planets that orbit both stars, which are known as circumbinary planets. To date, only 17 circumbinary systems have been discovered. A candidate for a circumbinary planet was announced in 2014 using data acquired by the NASA Kepler space telescope. The binary star system is known as KIC 8610483. The planet was discovered by observing the gravitational influence on the host stars’ orbits because it does not transit. The planet creates eclipse time variations, which are slight changes in the stars’ orbital periods. These variations allow us to derive certain properties of the planet. At the time the planet was announced, the orbital inclination of the planet could not be determined. Now that we have additional data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, we have the potential opportunity to get a more constrained estimation of the orbital tilt. This discovery is significant because we will be able to determine if this planet, like every other circumbinary planet, has a low inclination, or if it is a new kind of planet with high inclination. We know that these high inclination planets are theoretically possible, but they have never been detected.
