![]() ![]() TESS revealed a newly minted planet around the young star AU Microscopii and found a Neptune-size world orbiting two suns. Among the mission’s newest planetary discoveries are its first Earth-size world, named TOI 700 d, which is located in the habitable zone of its star, the range of distances where conditions could be just right to allow liquid water on the surface. TESS looks for transits, the telltale dimming of a star caused when an orbiting planet passes in front of it from our point of view. After spending a year imaging the southern sky, TESS will take another 15 months to collect additional observations in the north and to survey areas along the ecliptic – the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun – that the satellite has not yet imaged. These changes will remain in place for the duration of the extended mission, which will be completed in September 2022. NASA Planet Hunter Finds Earth-Size Habitable-Zone World The faster measurements will allow TESS to better resolve brightness changes caused by stellar oscillations and to capture explosive flares from active stars in greater detail. A new fast mode allows the brightness of thousands of stars to be measured every 20 seconds, along with the previous method of collecting these observations from tens of thousands of stars every two minutes. Its cameras now capture a full image every 10 minutes, three times faster than during the primary mission. In addition, the TESS team has introduced improvements to the way the satellite collects and processes data. Now in its extended mission, TESS has turned around to resume surveying the south. The mission spent its first year observing 13 sectors comprising the southern sky and then spent another year imaging the northern sky. ![]() TESS monitors 24-by-96-degree strips of the sky called sectors for about a month using its four cameras. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Watch to review some of TESS’s most interesting discoveries so far. ![]() On Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram.NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has completed its two-year primary mission and is continuing its search for new worlds. One of Webb's science objectives is to follow up previous discoveries of distant exoplanets to better discern their potential for developing life.įollow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews, also keep up with us Webb data does not as yet reveal, however, whether LHS 475 b has an atmosphere. The featured AI-illustrated guess depicts a plausibly rugged Earth-like landscape replete with molten lava and with the central red star rising in the distance. What is known for sure is that LHS 475 b has a mass very similar to our Earth and closely orbits a small red star about 40 light years away. The existence of the exoplanet was indicated in data taken by the Earth-orbiting TESS satellite but confirmed and further investigated only this year by the near-Earth Sun-orbiting James Webb Space Telescope. If you could stand on exoplanet LHS 475 b, what might you see? No one knows for sure but pictured here is an interesting guess made by an Earth-based artificial intelligence (AI) engine. ![]()
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