Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite : NASA
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have recently discovered and characterised a habitable zone planet named TOI-715b.
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA mission that’s searching for planets orbiting the brightest stars in Earth’s sky.
- The satellite is a follow-up to NASA’s highly successful Kepler space telescope, which found thousands of exoplanets during a decade of work after its launch in 2009.
- It was launched on April 18, 2018, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket out of Cape Canaveral.
- TESS circles Earth in a unique high Earth orbit of 12 to 15 days, which is inclined in such a way that the telescope’s sky view is largely free from obstructions by our bright planet and the Moon.
- Over the course of its two-year primary mission, TESS’ four sensitive cameras systematically scanned over 200,000 of the nearest and brightest stars, imaging 75% of the sky. It found 2,100 planetary candidates and 66 confirmed exoplanets.
- The prime mission ended on July 4, 2020, and TESS is now on an extended mission.
- TESS is finding planets ranging from small, rocky worlds to giant planets, showcasing the diversity of planets in the galaxy.
