NASA's TESS Space Telescope Starts Hunting for Undiscovered Planets

The NASA TESS's new space research space telescope (Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey) has begun its search for unknown worlds, the government agency announced.

The spacecraft will travel the skies and watch more than 200,000 stars nearby. exoplanets-planets that lie beyond our solar system. Some of them could be in the habitable zone of their host star, in which case they would become targets for future missions that could assess their ability to shelter life.

The spacecraft should transmit its first collection of scientific data in August, and every 13.5 days thereafter, when it periodically reaches the closest point of Earth to its orbit. Once the first set of data has been received, TESS scientists will begin to sift through the information to identify the signs of new planets.

"TESS will search 85% of our skies for exoplanets orbiting bright stars and our nearest stellar neighbors., NASA's headquarters program scientist for TESS, said Newsweek . "This will allow us to track planetary detections using other telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and then better explore the properties of these planets."

TESS, which was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is equipped with four wide-field cameras that will allow him to search for exoplanets during his two-year mission with the aid of a phenomenon known as transit name.This is when a planet passes in front of its star (from the viewpoint of an observer) causing a periodic and steady decrease in brightness.

Astronomers often use this method to identify the presence of planets. NASA's Kepler spacecraft, for example, has identified more than 2,600 exoplanets confirmed this way.

NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center

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TESS's research will focus on bright stars less than 300 years old -light. By using the light that they generate, researchers will be able to use spectroscopy – a technique that measures the absorption and emission of light – to determine the mass, density and atmospheric composition of light. 39; a planet, which could provide a glimpse of life [19659002"Jesuisraviquenotrenouvellemissiondechasseurdeplanètesoitprêteàcommenceràexplorerlevoisinagedenotresystèmesolairepourdenouveauxmondes"adéclaréPaulHertzdirecteurdeladivisionastrophysiqueausiègedelaNASAàWashington"Maintenantquenoussavonsqu'ilyaplusdeplanètesqued'étoilesdansnotreuniversj'attendsavecimpatiencelesmondesétrangesetfantastiquesquenousallonsdécouvrir"

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