If you are n’t excited about NASA ’s next skill launching in a week ’s time , you really should be . Because it is shape up to be one of the most authoritative military mission of the decade .
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite , or TESS , is scheduled to launch on Monday , April 16 fromCape Canaveral in Floridaon a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket salad , the first NASA skill launch for Elon ’s ship’s company .
But for once , all eyes wo n’t be focused on the Falcon 9 . Because TESS is a planet - Orion like no other , designed to see earthly concern - like world elsewhere in the galax .
“ We expect TESS will attain a figure of planet whose atmospheric writing , which concord potential clues to the presence of biography , could be precisely measured by future observers , ” George Ricker , the principal investigator ( PI ) for the commission , said in astatement .
TESS is a follow - up to NASA ’s wildly successful Kepler military mission . Launched in 2009 , that space scope has since found thousand of worlds beyond our Solar System ( exoplanets ) . In mere month , however , the mission is expected tocome to an destruction – with TESS poise to catch the mantle .
Using four broad - field cameras , TESS will honour about 85 percent of the entire sky from quite an left over orbit ( see below ) , split into 26 dissimilar sector with 13 for each hemisphere . It ’ll look for planets by noticing the dip in a star ’s light as planets pass in front , know as a transit , the same method acting used by Kepler .
While Kepler looked at a scope of stars , however , TESS will be focusing on those that aresmaller and coolerthan our own Sun , such as M dwarfs and jet dwarf . For this rationality it probably wo n’t find planets exactly like our own , in the same compass around standardised stars , but it will still give us a great idea of how many potentially inhabitable planets are out there .
“ I do n’t remember we know everything TESS is go to achieve , ” TESS labor scientist Stephen Rinehart said in the statement . “ To me , the most exciting part of any mission is the unexpected result , the one that nobody date amount . ”
Many of the planets discover by TESS will be prime target for future missions , like theconstantly delayedJames Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) , to study their atmospheres . It will focalise on planets30 to 300 wakeful - yearsaway , close enough for follow - up study .
The basal mission of TESS is await to last two years , although there ’s always the hazard it ’ll be extended . As we say adios to Kepler , we say hello to our next nifty planet - hunter , which should keep us entertained and busy for a good few years . Who knows what secrets about land - like or other earth it is wait to bring out .
