NASA TESS spacecraft set for launch today

Since NASA’s Kepler spacecraft launched in 2009, the space agency has found and confirmed a whopping 2343 new planets.

The launch is scheduled for 18.32 EDT, however, if weather conditions are unfavorable or there are technical glitches, SpaceX could delay proceedings until 18.13 on Tuesday.

Tess will build a catalogue of nearby, bright stars and their planets that other telescopes can then follow up. “By human nature, we look for exploration and adventure, and this is an opportunity to see what’s next”, NASA’s Sandra Connelly, a science program director, said Sunday on the eve of launch.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, will look for dips in brightness coming from distant stars, a sign that planets are crossing the stars in orbit. Scientists expect to discover thousands of planets that, over time, will undergo further scrutiny by powerful telescopes in space and on Earth. Of those, 30 are considered to be situated in a “habitable zone”, an area in which a planet’s surface could theoretically contain water.

The media outlet is also broadcasting live coverage of the TESS launch, courtesy of the USA space agency. Furthermore, TESS will be assisting us to find countless worlds and is developed to discover a swimming pool of little worlds and to transit little stars.

TESS improves upon its predecessor in several ways.

TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is shown in this conceptual illustration.

“One of the many incredible things that Kepler told us is that planets are everywhere and there are all kinds of planets out there”. “We’re going to be able study individual planets and start talking about the differences between planets”.

That makes them better suited for sensitive follow-up analysis of exoplanet candidates TESS locates.

“TESS is kind of like a scout”, said Natalia Guerrero, deputy manager of TESS Objects of Interest. “Now, go after them”. As Harrison Tasoff at Space.com reports, researchers have a list of molecules they are searching for in the data. “That’s the equivalent of about 6,500 song files beaming down to Earth every two weeks. After that, we have lots of gases we’re interested in, but mostly in space were looking for gases that don’t belong that are there in high quantities, enough to really be detected from far away”. Some say it’s a rocky planet, such as ours. “So it’s got to be there somewhere”.