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Before 1995, the year of the discovery of the first exoplanet, we only knew that there were planets in our solar system. Nearly two decades later, 4,000 exoplanets were discovered. There are nearly 3000 possible candidates. NASA estimates that since the first discovery of the exoplanet, the number of known exoplanets has doubled every 27 months.
As the number of exoplanets increases, scientists will understand more closely if there is another planet similar to the Earth in our universe and, if so, whether it can accommodate life. This is part of the mission of Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, more commonly known as TESS. Last week, a team of astronomers from Cornell, Lehigh University and Vanderbilt University published an article in the Astrophysical Journal Letters identifying a detailed catalog entitled "Catalog of 39, stars of the TESS liveable zone, comprising 1,822 potential stars where Earth-like planets might exist and where TESS could detect.
Padi Boyd, scientist of NASA's TESS project, told Salon that this catalog was important because he synthesized the data to a point where it can be hand-picked by scientists. This allows them to search for signals in a way that computer automation could not.
"This catalog is a little different: it looks at all the stars that TESS can see and looks for a subset of stars around which the TESS telescopes, the instruments themselves, could detect the transit of a TESS. little planet. , one or two small transits, and this planet would be in the habitable zone of its star, "said Boyd. "This is the catalog we already have and the selection of what some people consider to be the most interesting stars around which to search for planets."
It is these planets that would be in a habitable zone of these stars. A habitable zone means that an exoplanet is far enough away from the star of their solar system, like our sun, where water could possibly exist on the surface of the planet. TESS observes the sky by looking at the stars only in the nearest few hundred light-years, which allows it to collect more critical information to make follow-up observations. Now, with the new catalog, researchers have a better idea of what TESS should look for. For those who want to know if there is life elsewhere in the universe, this is another step in the search for an answer.
"Life could exist on all kinds of worlds, but the one we know today is ours. So it makes sense to start by looking for Earth-like planets, "said Lisa Kaltenegger, lead author and professor of astronomy at the College of Arts. and Science and director of the Carl Sagan Institute in Cornell in a statement. "This catalog is important for TESS because anyone working with the data wants to know which stars we can find the nearest Earth analogues."
The catalog also identified 408 stars that could be put into orbit by Earth-sized planets and could receive similar amounts of radiation that the Earth receives from the sun.
"I have 408 new favorite stars," Kaltenegger said. "It's amazing that I do not have to pick one, I have to look for hundreds of stars."
The next step is for TESS to get to work observing these stars.
"We do not know how many planets our TESS will find among the hundreds of stars in our catalog and whether they will be habitable," said Kaltenegger. "But the odds are in our favor.Some studies indicate that there are many rocky planets in the habitable area of cool stars, like those in our catalog."
All of these observations will better guide mission objectives such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which will further describe the atmosphere of the exoplanets that is expected to be launched early in 2021.
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