Exo Planet Explorer Tess To Launch In 2017

With the Kepler Space Telescope experiencing operational troubles despite the planned 2016 extended mission plan, the space science community must now LOOK AHEAD TO 2017 to a new exo-planet explorer. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of EXOPLANETS IN ORBIT around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 500,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat. TESS stars will be 30-100 times brighter than those surveyed by the Kepler satellite; thus,TESS planets will be far easier to characterize with follow-up observations. For the first time it will be possible to study the masses, sizes, densities, orbits, and atmospheres of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample of rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars. TESS will provide prime targets for characterization with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future.

TESS will serve as the "PEOPLE'S TELESCOPE," with data releases every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest main-sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which will forever be the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.

"TESS WILL CARRY OUT THE FIRST SPACE-BORNE ALL-SKY TRANSIT SURVEY, COVERING 400 TIMES AS MUCH SKY AS ANY PREVIOUS MISSION," PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR George Ricker said last month. "IT WILL IDENTIFY THOUSANDS OF NEW PLANETS IN THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD, WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON PLANETS COMPARABLE IN SIZE TO THE EARTH."

"

"TESS HAS JUST ACCELERATED OUR CHANCES OF FINDING LIFE ON ANOTHER PLANET WITHIN THE NEXT DECADE," noted SARA SEAGER, a professor of planetary science and physics at MIT and TESS mission science advisor. Seager's current focus is on exoplanet atmospheres and interiors.

"EXOPLANETS ARE PLANETS ORBITING STARS OTHER THAN THE SUN. ASTRONOMERS HAVE FOUND NEARLY 1000 EXOPLANETS SO FAR; MOST ARE LARGER THAN EARTH. FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, PEOPLE HAVE WONDERED, "ARE THERE OTHER PLANETS LIKE EARTH OUT THERE?" FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF BEING ABLE TO ANSWER THIS ANCIENT QUESTION," Seager has said.

Reference: alienspress.blogspot.com

Posted in aliens,astronomy,spaceflight No comments