Joshua N. Winn

Two planets around the star TOI-4495 perform a stumbling dance: while the inner one completes two laps, the outer manages just one. But the rhythm is off — the inner planet speeds up and slows down, like a partner stumbling in her steps. Using the transit method, watching as the planets briefly dim the star's light, astronomers weighed these worlds.

NASA's TESS space telescope monitors thousands of stars, catching the moment when a planet crosses its star's disk — the star's light dims slightly. That's how astronomers spotted two planets orbiting stars similar to our Sun. One, TOI-883 b, completes an orbit in ten days; the other, TOI-899 b, takes nearly thirteen.

A ball, almost weightless for its size, circles its star every four days. Planet TOI-2195 A b is a real riddle: by mass it's slightly heavier than Neptune, yet bloated to Jovian volumes. If there were an ocean big enough, this exoplanet would float on its surface like a giant inflatable ball.