After launching into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, “NASA's newest planet-hunter, the TESS space telescope, will observe roughly 85 percent of the sky to find planets orbiting bright, nearby stars,” writes Jay Bennett of Popular Mechanics. "Never underestimate how ingenious nature actually is," said MIT’s George Ricker, who is the principal investigator on TESS.
Rhod Sharp, presenter of Up All Night on BBC Radio 5, talks with Prof. Sara Seager about the functionality of TESS and the details of its orbit. “TESS has a very unique orbit, it’s like a giant ellipse,” says Seager. “The cameras are made to be very stable thermally, so little temperature changes don’t expand or contract different parts of the lens assembly, and thus mess up the image.”
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will enter an unusual, highly elliptical orbit around the Earth to capture images of about 20,000 new exoplanet candidates, writes Robbie Gonzalez of Wired. "We are setting the stage for the future of exoplanet research—not just for the 21st century, but the 22nd century and beyond," says MIT Kavli Institute senior research scientist George Ricker, leader of the TESS mission.
With TESS scheduled to launch, Kathleen McKiernan of The Boston Herald spoke with postdoctoral fellow Jennifer Burt and TESS researcher Natalia Guerrero, both at MIT's Kavli Institute. “It is NASA’s next exoplanet hunter,” said Burt of the MIT-led NASA mission.
Loren Grush of The Verge examines the potential findings of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which “will stare out at the cosmos searching for never-before-seen worlds” for two years, after launching on April 16. “[W]e’ll have a whole catalog of these planets in an order of priority for follow-up,” says Prof. Sara Seager, deputy science director for TESS.
With the launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite near, Elise Takahama of The Boston Globe spoke with Roland Vanderspek, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Kavli Institute, about the mission. “I’m hoping we get some really beautiful images,” said Vanderspek, “and enable good science all around the world.”
Marcia Dunn of the Associated Press reports on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is expected to find thousands of exoplanets “around the closest, brightest stars.” “All astronomers for centuries to come are really going to focus on these objects," said senior research scientist George Ricker, who is the mission’s chief scientist. "This is really a mission for the ages.”
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launching April 16th, “could mark our first step toward discovering another planet outside of our solar system that harbors life,” writes Miriam Kramer for Mashable. "Planet finding never gets old," said Prof. Sara Seager. "I hope the public will joyfully share in discoveries."
Set to launch on April 16th, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), will be used to identify “planets that are close enough to Earth for astronomers to explore them in detail,” writes Alexandra Witze for Nature. “It’s not so much the numbers of planets that we care about, but the fact that they are orbiting nearby stars,” says Prof. Sara Seager, deputy science director for TESS.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is “the brainchild of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” hopes to “identify at least 50 rocky exoplanets—Earth-size or bigger,” that will eventually be scrutinized by a larger telescope that is launching in 2022, writes Daniel Clery for Science. “This is the finder scope,” explains research scientist and TESS principal investigator George Ricker.
Launching next month, the TESS satellite “is NASA's next mission in the search for exoplanets,”writes Ashley Strickland for CNN. “We expect TESS will discover a number of planets whose atmospheric compositions, which hold potential clues to the presence of life, could be precisely measured by future observers,” said George Ricker of the MIT Kavli Institute, who is a principal investigator on the mission.
Dennis Overbye of The New York Times speaks with Prof. Sara Seager and senior research scientist George Ricker about the future of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The mission, led and operated by MIT, is preparing to orbit Earth for two years in search of other planets.
This April, NASA will launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which will measure the masses of at least 50 “potentially Earth-like worlds,” writes Irene Klotz for Scientific American. “We’re finding the particular star that actually potentially hosts an exoplanet around it,” said senior research scientist George Ricker, the lead scientist on TESS.
Prof. Sara Seager speaks to Guy Raz of NPR’s TED Radio Hour about the search for habitable planets outside of our solar system. “We know that there are lots of planets in their star's habitable zones that gives us confidence, but we still need a lot more information,” says Prof. Seager.
Boston Globe reporter Marin Finucane writes that with the help of around 10,000 citizen scientists, a team of astronomers has discovered five planets outside our solar system. “It’s exciting because we’re getting the public excited about science, and it’s really leveraging the power of the human cloud,” says Prof. Ian Crossfield of the discovery.