That spacecraft has spent a year and a half staring at bright, nearby stars, looking for the blips in brightness that can reveal alien worlds. ⭐

But these dips can also represent different types of stellar hiccups, which means that TESS data is also a treasure trove for scientists studying how stars work.

"Really, TESS has been secretly all along a stellar activity and stellar variability mission," James Davenport, an astronomer at the University of Washington, said last month during the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held in Honolulu.🔭