TESS

Astronomy Today@astronomytoday

Astronomers say they found a gas giant born from the debris of a dying star, a so-called phoenix planet. It may be a little heavier than Jupiter and orbits a white dwarf about 250 light years away.

Unlike Earth, it came from material a dying star had thrown off, and its chemistry, heavy with niobium, copper and zinc, backs that up. It orbits every 4.4 days, so close that the white dwarf's ultraviolet light is evaporating its outer atmosphere.

Lead author Jamie Williams hopes the James Webb Space Telescope will confirm the findings, which relied on Hubble, TESS and FUSE data.

Astronomy Today@astronomytoday

Astronomers have worked out why a distant exoplanet seemed to vanish. The planet, TOI-2535 b, sits about 1,000 light-years away, and NASA's TESS telescope tracked it for seven years.

It never actually went anywhere. A hidden neighboring planet is tugging on it while it tugs back, which tilted its orbit out of line with its star and stopped it crossing the star's face in March.

The planet isn't due to pass in front of its star for at least 30 years, though its unseen companion could do so sooner.