Using NASA's TESS space telescope, which makes precise brightness measurements of stars, astronomers noticed that a distant star dims slightly for a brief time every 165 days. This is the transit of a planet across the star's disk — a giant world blocking a fraction of the light. Later, analysis of the star's spectrum revealed it wobbles periodically: the planet tugs it one way, then the other. That's how they deduced the orbit — it turned out to be like a swing. The planet swoops closer to its star than Mercury is to our Sun, then recedes far beyond Earth's orbit.

What makes it swing so wildly? The star has a distant companion — another star. Its gravity nudges the planet, gradually making the orbit more and more elongated. But when the planet nears its hot star, tidal forces start to brake it. It's like friction in a swing's hinge: with every pass, the amplitude drops. Eventually the orbit will circularize, and the planet will be right next to the star — a hot Jupiter is born. Scientists ran computer simulations of many scenarios, using software developed for stellar evolution. They tested two types of tides: smooth, viscous damping (like kneading modeling clay) and chaotic jolts from internal waves. Only the smooth version matched the observations, and even that required a huge effort.

Thus, astronomers confirmed that equilibrium tides drive the migration of giant planets toward their stars. The cosmic swing doesn't last forever — friction damps its excursions, giving birth to scorching worlds.