TESS Archives

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

A Transiting Rocky Super-Earth And A Non-transiting Sub-Neptune Orbiting The M Dwarf TOI-771

by Keith CowingApril 29, 2025April 29, 2025

The origin and evolution of the sub-Neptune population is a highly debated topic in the exoplanet community.

Mass-radius diagram for all 64 targets in our full sample, including confirmed planets (star markers) and null detections (square markers). The colour of each of the planet markers indicates their orbital period. The dashed lines are the compositions for pure iron (dark grey), plus an additional line representing a 5 per cent H-He envelope with 𝐹/𝐹⊕ = 50 (red) (taken from Otegi et al. 2020). Other composition lines include Earth-like (green), and Steam-world (blue) (taken from Venturini et al. 2024). The Solar System planets Venus (V), Earth (E), Uranus (U), Neptune (N) and Saturn (S) are shown for context as black circles. The background light grey exoplanet sample is taken from the NASA Exoplanet archive (https://www.exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu, as of 28 January 2025) with mass determinations better than 4𝜎. TOI-564 b is not shown in this Figure for visual representation of the whole sample, as it has a mass of 𝑀p = 465 M⊕ and radius 𝑅p = 11.4 R⊕ of putting it outwith the plotted region. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Exploring The Neptunian Desert: Insights From A Homogeneous Planetary Sample

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2025

In this paper, we present a homogeneous analysis of close-in Neptune planets. To do this, we compile a sample of TESS-observed planets using a ranking criterion which takes into account […]

A disintegrating planet orbits a giant star. Credit Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release

Rapidly Disintegrating Planet BD+054868Ab Produces A Comet-like Tail

by Keith CowingApril 22, 2025

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet some 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly crumbling to pieces.

Target pixel files of TOI-3493 in TESS sectors 37 (left) and 64 (right). The electron counts are color-coded. The red-bordered pixels are used in the simple aperture photometry. TOI-3493 is represented with a circle marked with #1. The other stars are represented with red circles and the size of the circle related to the magnitude difference. The other stars in the field are relatively faint, and hence appear as tiny dots. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

TOI-3493 b: A Planet With A Neptune-like Density Transiting A Bright G0-type Star

by Keith CowingApril 18, 2025April 18, 2025

We report the discovery of TOI-3493 b, a sub-Neptune-sized planet on an 8.15-d orbit transiting the bright (V=9.3) G0 star HD 119355 (aka TIC 203377303) initially identified by NASA’s TESS […]

183 TESS systems with multiple planet candidates and/or confirmed planets (grey circles showing transiting planets), with the peak of the Dynamite v3 orbital period posterior distributions under the period ratio model (PRM, diamonds) and clustered period model (PCM, squares) shaded according to their recovery fraction. The PCM predictions lie at systematically shorter periods, and have higher recovery fractions than the PRM predictions. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Searching for Additional Planets in TESS Multi-Planet Systems: Testing Empirical Models Based on Kepler Data

by Keith CowingApril 17, 2025April 17, 2025

Multi-planet system architectures are frequently used to constrain possible formation and evolutionary pathways of observed exoplanets.

Current density (J⃗ = ∇ × B/ ⃗ (4π)) streamlines for an initial magnetic field B0 = 0.1 (the magnetic field streamlines corresponding to the same simulation are shown in the upper panel of Figure 2). The computational box is rotated as shown in the coordinate axes on the left. The color scale corresponds to the intensity of the current density, from blue (lower) to red (larger current density). As the magnetic field is nearly vertical, the current density is nearly zero on the left of the computational box (with respect to the x axis). Downstream (with respect to the planet position), the current density streamlines form a complex structure, with cavities (with low current density) which start from the position of the planet and extend towards larger values of y and z (see upper right panel). The projection of the current density along the x − y plane forms a structure which resembles the one obtained in analytical models (Figure 4). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Status Report

Numerical Simulations Of The Interaction Between The Stellar Magnetic Field And A Planet

by Keith CowingApril 15, 2025April 15, 2025

Kepler and TESS observations led to the discovery of many close-in super Earths, including some with ultra-short orbital periods (≲1 day).

Spectral energy distributions of WASP-102 (top row left), WASP-116 (top row middle), WASP-149 (top row right), WASP-154 (second row left), WASP-155 (second row middle), WASP-188 (second row right), WASP-194 (bottom row left), WASP-195 (bottom row middle), and WASP-197 (bottom row right). Red symbols represent the observed photometric measurements, where the horizontal bars represent the effective width of the pass-band. Blue symbols are the model fluxes from the best-fit PHOENIX atmosphere model (black). The absolute flux-calibrated Gaia spectrum is shown as a grey swathe in the inset figure. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

A Swarm Of WASP Planets: Nine Giant Planets Identified By The WASP Survey

by Keith CowingApril 14, 2025April 14, 2025

The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey provided some of the first transiting hot Jupiter candidates. With the addition of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), many WASP planet […]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Updating the Ephemeris and Physical Properties of Five Long-period Transiting Exoplanets Using TESS and CHEOPS

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2025April 3, 2025

The transiting long-period exoplanets are the most interesting follow-up targets for the next-generation instruments, using the most sophisticated observational techniques.

Population-level predictions of gas dwarf and water world hypotheses for sub-Neptune evolution in the left and right-hand panels, respectively. The populations are shown at times of 1 − 10 Gyrs and < 40 Myrs in the top and bottom panels, respectively. Colour bars represent relative probability of planet occurrence. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Distinguishing Between Gas Dwarfs And Water Worlds With Young Transiting Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2025April 15, 2025

The detection of young transiting exoplanets represents a new frontier in our understanding of planet formation and evolution.

Comparison of the young transiting planet population in our sample (color-coded by age), and the Gyr-old transiting planet population (gray contours). Young gas-rich planets appear to be puffier, and “shrink” as they age, thereby populating gaps in the Gyr-old distribution, as indicated by our statistical analysis of this sample. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

Signatures of Atmospheric Mass Loss and Planet Migration in the Time Evolution of Short-Period Transiting Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2025

Comparative studies of young and old exoplanet populations offer a glimpse into how planets may form and evolve with time.

TESS

A Transiting Rocky Super-Earth And A Non-transiting Sub-Neptune Orbiting The M Dwarf TOI-771

Exploring The Neptunian Desert: Insights From A Homogeneous Planetary Sample

Rapidly Disintegrating Planet BD+054868Ab Produces A Comet-like Tail

TOI-3493 b: A Planet With A Neptune-like Density Transiting A Bright G0-type Star

Searching for Additional Planets in TESS Multi-Planet Systems: Testing Empirical Models Based on Kepler Data

Numerical Simulations Of The Interaction Between The Stellar Magnetic Field And A Planet

A Swarm Of WASP Planets: Nine Giant Planets Identified By The WASP Survey

Updating the Ephemeris and Physical Properties of Five Long-period Transiting Exoplanets Using TESS and CHEOPS

Distinguishing Between Gas Dwarfs And Water Worlds With Young Transiting Exoplanets

Signatures of Atmospheric Mass Loss and Planet Migration in the Time Evolution of Short-Period Transiting Exoplanets

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 14 November 2026: Setting Up Lab and Dive Tents

Testing The Hypothesis, ‘Planetary Protection Is Expensive’ From The ESA Perspective

Tracing Galactic Dust Reddening with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission: SPHEREx Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole

Signatures of CH4 and NH3 in the Atmosphere of β Pictoris b

Hydrolyzed Hazes on Water-rich Exoplanets: Composition and Prebiotic Chemistry