NASA's TESS spacecraft began its search for distant planets

NASA's latest spacecraft research on the quest for exoplanets began to take scientific data the last week, according to a statement from NASA.

TESS, the satellite for the investigation of exoplanets transiting, is a two-year mission studying the sky planets around other stars. After launching last April and delivering an incredible first image of the sky, the real hunt began

TESS in Earth orbit will use its instruments to measure 200,000 stars less than 300 light-years from our Sun. He can peep stars brighter than his predecessor, Kepler and K2 (two missions, a spaceship). It will also be better at imaging exoplanets orbiting in habitable areas of red dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 and Proxima Centauri nearby. Some scientists have speculated that these strange worlds could be home to extraterrestrial life.

The four 16.9-megapixel CCD cameras in the spacecraft each represent a sky-sized area of ​​a medium constellation, according to NASA. the time is here. TESS will monitor each region for 27 days, then move on to the next, finally mapping 85% of the sky, which is 350 times more sky than Kepler has seen. The first data will come in August and every 13.5 days thereafter (each orbit).

TESS is primarily an investigative mission. He will create a catalog of nearby stars whose light periodically decreases, signaling the presence of a planet in orbit. These stars will be candidates for follow-up observations by other telescopes, who will be able to determine their masses and other properties, such as compositions of their atmospheres. The next James Webb Space Telescope will begin to study these exoplanets. Scientists who are looking for life are more interested in finding potential biosignatures, light emissions characteristic of molecules that could be indicative of life-things like organic compounds and water. We will probably have to wait until the 2040s, when a future telescope will have the ability to make observations like these.

Finding a livable exoplanet will be a long process, but it's a process that is in full swing. , thanks to TESS.

[via NASA]