NASA's newest planetary hunter begins scientific operations



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After a successful launch in April of this year, NASA's newest planetary hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey (TESS), began searching for planets around nearby stars

. should transmit its first set of scientific data to Earth in August, and then periodically every 13.5 days, once per orbit, as the spacecraft is closest to Earth, NASA said in a statement.

"I am delighted that our new planetary hunter mission is ready to begin exploring the vicinity of our solar system for new worlds," said Paul Hertz, NASA Astrophysics Division Director. In our universe, I look forward to the strange and fantastic worlds we are called to discover, "added Hertz.

TESS is NASA's latest satellite to search for planets outside of our solar system, called exoplanets.

The mission will spend the next two years monitoring the nearest and brightest stars for periodic dives to their light.

These events, called transits, suggest that the a planet can pbad in front of its star.

TESS should find thousands of planets using this method, some of which could potentially support life.

– IANS

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(This story was not edited by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)

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