For NASA’s TESS, Stellar Eclipses Shed Light on Possible New Worlds
NASA’s TESS mission has identified over two dozen candidate exoplanets by analyzing timing variations in stellar eclipses within binary star systems. This method expands TESS's planet-finding capabilities beyond traditional transit observations. The findings were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and await confirmation through ground-based observations.
- ▪TESS has discovered 885 confirmed exoplanets and over 7,900 candidates, primarily through detecting transits.
- ▪The new study analyzed 1,590 eclipsing binary systems using TESS data, identifying 27 with candidate planets.
- ▪Planet formation models differ on whether planets in binary systems form in orderly orbits near the stars' plane or in more tilted, disorderly paths.
- ▪The candidate planets range from about 12 Earth masses to around 10 times Jupiter's mass.
- ▪Confirming the planets will require ground-based measurements of stellar velocities to detect gravitational tugs.
- ▪The study was led by Margo Thornton at UNSW Sydney and published on May 4, 2026.
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4 min readFor NASA’s TESS, Stellar Eclipses Shed Light on Possible New WorldsFrancis ReddyMay 04, 2026 Article A study of NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data on stellar pairs undergoing mutual eclipses has uncovered more than two dozen candidate exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system. This method allows the mission to locate planets it couldn’t otherwise detect. A gas giant planet looms in the foreground at right, illuminated by a pair of stars, in this artist’s concept of a world in a binary system. NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has found planets in two binary star systems by looking for stellar dimming as the planets cross in front of one of the stars.
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