Transits (that vanish) around a white dwarf every 4.97 hr
In August 2025, a manuscript led by graduate student and BUWD member Joseph Guidry (Guidry, Vanderbosch, Hermes et al. 2025) was accepted which announced the discovery of deep, irregular, periodic transits from rocky exoplanetary debris towards the white dwarf ZTF J1944+4557. This retired star dims by more than 30% roughly every five hours, as clumps of debris block off light from the white dwarf. For the first time we have also observed transits around a white dwarf completely stop, and completely return roughly a year later, giving us a new laboratory to watch how shattered rocks evolve around dead stars. The manuscript has been accepted in The Astrophysical Journal.