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A distant exoplanet mysteriously vanished from sight. Astronomers just discovered why

That's 10 times quicker than the orbit of Mercury around the sun and means this blisteringly hot planet is classed as a " hot Jupiter." However, something strange happened started to happen as astronomers observed the distant world.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 1 source•1 min read•Updated November 10, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC
Key points
  • The orbits of the planet weren't regular like those of other planets, with TOI-2535 b often arriving six hours early or six hours later than when astronomers expected.
  • In the meantime, scientists will attempt to decode what this extreme wobbling exoplanet system says about how it formed.
  • New research suggests that the planet hasn't vanished at all, but has been dragged off its orbit by an unseen planet.

Astronomers have solved the mystery of an extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, that "disappeared" after seven years of observations.

Additional details
  • The planet's orbit is tilting so quickly that its transit disappeared while we were watching." TOI-2535 b isn't expected to transit its parent star for at least 30 years, but the hidden neighbor tugging on it may cross the face of the star sooner than that.
  • Alternatively, the hot Jupiter may be pulled inwards along with the other planets while sitting in a flattened cloud of gas and dust around the infant star called a protoplanetary disk.
  • The planet could be excited into an elliptical orbit by violent events like a near-collision with another planetary object, and then interactions with the star pull the planet inwards.
  • Then, in March this year, TESS was no longer spotting the characteristic drops in starlight that TOI-2535 b caused as it crossed, or "transited," the face of its parent star.
  • The exoplanet, designated TOI-2535 b, is located around 1,000 light-years away.

How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →

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Space.comNovember 10, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC →

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