Fixed TESS models place the TOI-1960.01 flux loss closer to a Gaia binary candidate in sectors 37 and 99

We test whether a nearby Gaia binary can explain the TESS dips assigned to TOI-1960.01. A complete screen of 2,184,477 Gaia DR3 binary candidates and a frozen NASA table gives 89 distinct-position period matches. We select TOI-1960.01 after accounting for earlier SCI studies. Gaia DR3 5336073557657050624 is 15.73 arcseconds from the TOI position. We fit four complete events in sector 37 and three in sector 99. Both fits place the loss closer to this binary than to the assigned star. The fitted position projection is 0.781 and 0.982, where 0 is the assigned star and 1 is the binary. Central 95% whole-event resample intervals are 0.574 to 1.079 and 0.905 to 1.019 with the response model and coordinate correction fixed. All event-omission and tested model variants remain closer to the binary. Fixed binary fits give lower weighted residual sums than assigned-star fits in both sectors. The sector-99 free fit is 0.014 pixel from the binary. The sector-37 fit is 0.268 pixel away and has other stars nearby. Seventeen eclipse times across four sectors give a period of 5.3419144 days with an event-bootstrap standard deviation of 0.0000131 day. This agrees with the Gaia period within its stated error. These tests support binary contamination under the tested models. They do not give a unique source identification or a calibrated planet false-positive probability. The package preserves code, numerical extracts, figures, audit results, source queries, and hashes.

TOI-1960.01 · TIC 318828309 · Gaia DR3 · TESS · eclipsing binaries · transit contamination · pixel response function · source localization · public data