For the first time, astronomers witnessed a gigantic exoplanet dramatically vanish from view. But the “hot Jupiter” located about 1,000 light-years from Earth didn’t evaporate into the vacuum of space. Instead, the gravitational pull from an uncomfortably close neighbor is causing TOI-2535 b to wobble in its orbit thanks to the same dynamics dictating solar and lunar eclipses. The unusual discovery is detailed in a study recently published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, and relies on observations gathered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) orbital telescope. “We think of the…
