Overview
- TESS discovered the hot Jupiter TOI-2535 b in 2019 and monitored it for seven years, during which its transit times grew irregular and its transit dips became shorter and shallower before stopping in March 2026.
- The research team used long-term transit timing and depth changes to infer that a second, unseen planet is tugging on TOI-2535 b and causing its orbital plane to nodally precess so the planet no longer crosses its star from our viewpoint.
- Lead author Samuel Yee describes this as an extreme example of strong multi-planet interaction because the orbit tilted quickly enough that the transit 'disappeared while we were watching.'
- The authors predict TOI-2535 b will return to transit visibility in about 30 to 50 years and say the perturbing companion could be detected sooner through targeted follow-up observations and continued timing studies.
- This case shows the value of long-term monitoring for finding unseen planets and teaches that a missing transit does not mean a planet is gone but that orbital geometry can temporarily hide worlds from Earth.