UCLA astronomers find wobbly neighbor for disappearing exoplanet
A UCLA-led team identified a neighboring planet causing the first known disappearing world to wobble out of view near a star 1,000 light-years away.
Planet vanishes from sight
UCLA astronomers discovered TOI-2535 b, a hot Jupiter orbiting its host star every 8.25 days. Observations using NASA's TESS telescope between April 2019 and March 2026 showed the planet stopping its regular transit pattern. The transits became shorter and shallower until they failed to appear in 2026. Gravity from an unseen neighbor tilts the orbit so the planet circles obliquely.
Orbit tilts like a top
The two planets interact strongly enough that their orbits wobble like a spinning top. This interaction causes each world to circle its sun at an angle relative to the other. The tilt pushes TOI-2535 b out of alignment with our line of sight completely. Researchers published these findings in an article within Astrophysical Journal Letters recently.
Future visibility and formation clues
Samuel Yee noted this is the most extreme example of strong planetary interaction seen so far. The hidden neighbor may become visible sooner than the primary planet which will transit again in 30 to 50 years. Erik Petigura compared the orbital tilt to the moon's history involving a collision with early Earth. These observations reveal surprising information about how such extremely hot Jupiter-sized planets might have formed.
Reported by one outlet
Only one outlet has published this. Nothing here has been checked against a second report, so read it as that outlet's account and follow the link below for the original.
Reported by
1 independent outlet. Headline as published. Links open the original report.