This study presents an astrophysics-inspired transit search optimization (TSO) algorithm based on exoplanet search divided into five phases: galaxy phase, star phase, transit phase, neighbor phase and exploitation phase for effective parameter estimation of fractional Hammerstein control autoregressive (Fr-HCAR) systems. Various physical phenomena and real processes can be modeled with Fr-HCAR systems and estimating the Fr-HCAR parameters becomes a vital task. The mean-square error (MSE)-based criterion function is developed, and efficacy of the TSO for Fr-HCAR identification is deeply analyzed for different fractional orders, disturbance levels and degrees of freedom. The TSO remained accurate, convergent, robust and stable for all variations in Fr-HCAR but the accuracy level degrades a little bit for high disturbance and increased degrees of freedom. The reliability and trustworthiness of the TSO for Fr-HCAR identification are endorsed through statistical analyses conducted on sufficient autonomous executions of the scheme.