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The new NASA planetary hunter is operational.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in April to search for extraterrestrial worlds orbiting stars relatively close to the sun, unveiled its first scientific image, NASA officials said this week. The new photo shows bright, shining stars, as well as two nearby galaxies.
No exoplanet is visible in this "first light" image, but scientists know that they are there. [NASA’s TESS Exoplanet-Hunting Mission in Pictures]
On August 7, 2018, NASA's Exoplanet Transit Satellite (TESS) (TESS) took this snapshot of the great Magellan Cloud (right) and the bright star R Doradus (left ). part of the southern sky TESS captured in his scientific image "first light" as part of his first series of data collection. Credit: NASA / MIT / TESS
"This band of the southern hemisphere of the sky includes more than a dozen stars [that] We know that planets in transit are based on ancient studies conducted by ground-based observatories, "said George Ricker, TESS senior researcher and astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a statement from NASA.
The test image was taken over a 30-minute period on August 7, using the four TESS cameras. The field of view includes fragments of a dozen constellations, as well as a handful of well-known targets from amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere. Targets include large and small magellanic clouds – the closest galaxies to the Earth – as well as 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), a globular cluster of old stars.
TESS captured this band of stars and galaxies in the southern sky for a period of 30 minutes on August 7, 2018. Created by combining the view of the four cameras, it's the 'first light' of TESS since the first observation. sector that will be used to identify planets around other stars. Notable features of this part of the southern sky include large and small magellanic clouds and a globular cluster called NGC 104, also known as 47 Tucanae. The brightest stars in the picture, Beta Gruis and R Doradus, saturated an entire column of camera-detecting pixels on the satellite's second and fourth cameras.
Credit: NASA / MIT / TESS
The image also includes two bright stars called Beta Gruis and R Doradus, which saturated nearby pixels and caused light spikes, NASA officials said.
On 25 July, TESS began collecting scientific data and disseminating its first images of this campaign in early September. TESS is expected to find at least 50 rocky planets during its first three years of operation, as well as many gas giants, Mission officials said.
"In a sea of stars brimming with new worlds, TESS is throwing a wide net and will carry a host of promising planets for further study," said Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division at the headquarters of NASA in Washington. . "This first-light scientific image shows the capabilities of the TESS cameras and shows that the mission will realize its incredible potential in our search for another Earth."
TESS is the successor spacecraft of NASA's aging Kepler Space Telescope, launched in 2009 and expected to run out of fuel soon. While most Kepler planets orbit distant stars in the constellation Cygnus, TESS focuses on brighter, closer stars in all areas of the sky.
Like Kepler, TESS watches stars for changes in brightness that occur as planets pass their host stars. These events are called transits. TESS rotates around the Earth every 13.7 days and sends back images via NASA's Deep Space Network. The first year, TESS will study 13 sectors in the southern sky. Then he will study 13 additional areas in the northern sky in his second year. According to NASA, TESS will cover about 85% of the sky between these two surveys.
TESS captured this square of stars and galaxies in the southern sky with its fourth camera for a period of 30 minutes on August 7, 2018.
Credit: NASA / MIT / TESS
The target stars that TESS studies are about 30 to 300 light-years from Earth. (The light travels 186,282 miles or 299,792 kilometers per second, a light-year is the measure of the distance traveled by light in one year.)
Given that TESS should find planets 30 to 100 times brighter than Kepler targets, some TESS worlds should be good targets for ground and space telescope tracking studies. For example, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is likely to explore the atmospheres of some TESS planets after its launch in 2021.
TESS is also opening up observations to the scientific community as part of the TESS Guest Investigator program, which has already received requests to study asteroids and galaxies.
The newly published photo is not the first image of TESS as a whole; the satellite returned its first photo test in May.
follow us @ Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally posted on Space.com.
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