NASA's "TESS" mission will search for Earth-like planets

CAP CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, US, 18 April. - (ANA)  - NASA on Monday launched a new astrophysics mission that will spend the next two years scanning the sky in search of Earth-like planets.
 
  The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or "TESS" for short, will use four hi-tech cameras to scan the void for signs of planets.
 
  "The coverage of the TESS cameras is unprecedented, in terms of the amount of sky they can actually see," says principal TESS investigator George Ricker. "The types of targets that TESS will allow us to find will enclose essentially all of the bright stars."
 
  TESS will spend two years flying around the Earth in a highly elliptical orbit that maximizes the amount of sky it can scan. It will beam information to Earth once every 13 days. After two years, TESS will have built a map of 85% of the night sky.
 
 
  The TESS mission will expand on the data gathered during the Kepler mission (2009-present) and will help us discover which of our stellar neighbors have planets.
 
  The Kepler mission showed us proof of more than 3,000 distant planets, but was unable to take precise measurements.
 
  "There are far more planets in the Milky Way than there are stars," says Ricker. "We know that planets in principle exist there, but there's really not much more we can say other than that they exist."
 
  TESS is expected to collect data on as many as 20,000 planets, including hundreds approximately the size of Earth. With information related to size, density, and composition, astronomers will be able to make educated guesses about which of these planets might be capable of sustaining life.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/ 18 April 2018 - - -