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Talk about it for your money – NASA's $ 337 million telescope has only been in orbit for five months and has already spotted two still unknown planets.
Credit: NASA
The "super-terrestrial" and "terrestrial" planets have been spotted in solar systems at least 49 light-years away.
It was confirmed this week that the NASA's exoplanet surveillance satellite, or TESS, an orbital planetary search telescope, had made the incredible discovery.
Amazing discovery marks the first discovery on a two-year mission, following its launching in April from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Credit: NASA
As part of the astronomers' attempt to expand the known catalog of exoplanets – worlds surrounding distant stars – TESS is designed to detect the worlds beyond our solar system.
The "super-earth" and the "hot earth" are too hot to support life, but the TESS Assistant Scientific Director Sara Seager says she expects other similar discoveries.
She told Reuters: "We will have to wait and see what TESS discovers on the other.
"We know the planets are out there, littering the night sky, waiting to be found."
TESS is designed to build on the work of its predecessor, the Kepler Space Telescope. the Kepler discovered the majority of the 3,700 exoplanets documented in the last 20 years years old, but is running out of fuel.
NASA hopes to discover thousands of other unknown planets before – perhaps hundreds of them, the size of the Earth or the "super-Earth", which do not exceed twice our third rock.
Planets that fall into this category are the most likely to have oceans or rocky surfaces that are considered the best for life to evolve.
The scientists said they hoped that TESS would eventually help catalog at least 100 more rocky exoplanets for further study, which has become one of the new areas of exploration for the future. astronomy.
MIT researchers announced earlier this week the discovery of Pi Mensae c, a "super-terrestrial" planet located 60 light-years from the orbit of its sun every 6.3 days.
The next day, they announced the discovery of LHS 3844b, a "hot earth" planet located 49 light-years away from the planet, circling the sun every 11 hours.
Credit: NASA
Martin Spill, NASA's TESS Program Manager, reportedly said in a phone interview that pi Mensae c could have a solid surface or be a world of water, like the composition of such planets is an assortment.
Although the two new planets still have to be examined by other researchers, officials stated that they offered the opportunity to conduct a follow-up study.
Spill said, "Of course, the goal of TESS is to find those planets around those brightest stars to do that." really detailed characterization."
With four special cameras, TESS uses a detection method called transit photometry, which looks for periodic drops in visible light from stars caused by passing or transiting planets.
Photo credit: NASA
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