TESS Archives - Universe Today

Artist Illustration of TESS and its 4 telescopes. Credit: NASA/MIT

How Many Planets is TESS Going to Find?

25 Apr , 2018 by Matt Williams

According to a new study, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is estimated to find over 4000 planets during its first two-year mission

Farewell Kepler. Welcome TESS

18 Apr , 2018 by Fraser Cain

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral today, carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite into space. This is a changing of the guard as we say goodbye to Kepler and welcome this newest planet hunter into the skies, ready to help us find another Earth.

A conceptual image of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Image Credit: MIT

Exoplanet-Hunting TESS Satellite to be Launched by SpaceX

6 Jan , 2015 by Matt Williams

The search for exoplanets is heating up, thanks to the deployment of space telescopes like Kepler and the development of new observation methods. In fact, over 1800 exoplanets have been discovered since the 1980s, with 850 discovered just last year. That’s quite the rate of progress, and Earth’s scientists have no intention of slowing down! […]

NASA’s Next Exoplanet Hunter Moves Into Development

10 Nov , 2014 by Matt Williams

NASA’s ongoing hunt for exoplanets has entered a new phase as NASA officially confirmed that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is moving into the development phase. This marks a significant step for the TESS mission, which will search the entire sky for planets outside our solar system (a.k.a. exoplanets). Designed as the first all-sky […]

This artist’s view shows an extrasolar planet orbiting a star (the white spot in the right).

Is Our Solar System Weird?

17 Jul , 2014 by Brian Koberlein Video

Is our Solar System normal? Or is it weird? How does the Solar System fit within the strange star systems we’ve discovered in the Milky Way so far? With all the beautiful images that come down the pipe from Hubble, our Solar System has been left with celestial body image questions rivaling that of your […]

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The Search for Alien Life Could Get A Boost From NASA’s Next-Generation Rocket

14 Jul , 2014 by Elizabeth Howell

In three years, NASA is planning to light the fuse on a huge rocket designed to bring humans further out into the solar system. We usually talk about SLS here in the context of the astronauts it will carry inside the Orion spacecraft, which will have its own test flight later in 2014. But today, […]

Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions

4 Nov , 2013 by Shannon Hall

Last week I held an interview with Dr. Sara Seager – a lead astronomer who has contributed vastly to the field of exoplanet characterization. The condensed interview may be found here. Toward the end of our interview we had a lengthy conversation regarding the future of exoplanet research. I quickly realized that this subject should […]

New Exoplanet-Hunting Mission to launch in 2017

10 Apr , 2013 by David Dickinson

Move over Kepler. NASA has recently green-lighted two new missions as part of its Astrophysics Explorer Program. These come as the result of four proposals submitted in 2012. The most anticipated and high profile mission is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Slated for launch in 2017, TESS will search for exoplanets via the transit method, […]

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