A TESS Disappearing Act: The Vanishing Transits of TOI-2535 b
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Planetary transits require a fortuitous alignment between a planet’s orbit and our line of sight, but dynamical interactions can render this geometric coincidence only temporary. We report the discovery of the hot Jupiter TOI-2535b, the first confirmed planet orbiting a single star whose transits have been directly observed to disappear. Over 7 yr of photometry from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the planet’s transit chord traversed and eventually moved off the stellar disk entirely, with an impact parameter changing at the rate of b ̇ = 0.16 yr − 1 . The transit midtimes also show significant departures of ±6 hr from a linear ephemeris. Joint modeling of the transit timing and duration variations (TTVs and TDVs) and NEID radial-velocity data indicates the presence of a nearby, mutually inclined ( i mut ≳ 5 ∘ ) planetary perturber, with the TDV being primarily due to precession of the planets’ orbital planes. Our dynamical modeling reveals that the perturber is likely of Saturn-mass or greater and in a mean-motion resonance with TOI-2535b, making this an unusual system that contains two short-period giant planets. The TDVs measured for TOI-2535b represent one of the most extreme examples of planet–planet interactions driving orbital evolution on human timescales.
Authors: Samuel W. Yee, Erik A. Petigura, Rafael Brahm, Karen A. Collins, Gregor Srdoc, David W. Latham, Allyson Bieryla, Victoria DiTomasso, Thomas Henning, Andrés Jordán, Trifon Trifonov, Khalid Barkaoui, Phil Evans, Emmanuel Jehin, Mourad Ghachoui, Michaël Gillon, Eric Girardin, Felipe Murgas, Enric Palle, Adam Popowicz, Don J. Radford, Howard M. Relles, Richard P. Schwarz, Avi Shporer, Abderahmane Soubkiou, David Watanabe, Francis P. Wilkin, Carl Ziegler
Institutions: University of California, Los Angeles, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, University of Chile, Heidelberg University, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", University of Liège, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cadi Ayyad University, Universidad de La Laguna, Silesian University of Technology, Union College, Stephen F. Austin State University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,400
OpenAlex ID: W7225657171