NASA launches planet hunting spacecraft
Channel: Александр Юрьевич Чукланов
Date: 2018-04-20

NASA launches planet-hunting spacecraft to seek alien worlds 'we are yet to imagine' beyond the solar system
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is on a two-year mission to find out if we are alone in the universe
NASA has launched a planet-hunting spacecraft to try and find alien worlds beyond our solar system.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is on the first-of-its-kind mission and it is hoped that it may even be able to discover planets that could support life.
It is expected to find thousands of new exoplanets orbiting nearby stars as it travels through outer space.
The satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6.51pm yesterday.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said: "We are thrilled TESS is on its way to help us discover worlds we have yet to imagine, worlds that could possibly be habitable, or harbor life.
"With missions like the James Webb Space Telescope to help us study the details of these planets, we are ever the closer to discovering whether we are alone in the universe.”
Over the next couple of weeks the spacecraft will use six thruster burns to travel in a series of progressively elongated orbits to reach the moon.
That will mean there will be enough gravitational assistance so that TESS can then carry on a 13.7-day final science orbit around Earth.
And after 60 days of check-out and instrument testing it ill begin its work.
George Ricker, TESS principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Cambridge, said: “One critical piece for the science return of TESS is the high data rate associated with its orbit.
“Each time the spacecraft passes close to Earth, it will transmit full-frame images taken with the cameras. That’s one of the unique things TESS brings that was not possible before.”
TESS' two-year mission has been divided into 26 sectors by scientists.
It will use four unique wide-field cameras to map 13 sectors of the southern sky in its first year and then 13 sectors of the northern sky during its second year.
It will also be watching for transits which is when a planet passes in front of its star causing a periodic and regular dip in the star's brightness.
More than 78% of the 3,700 confirmed exoplanets have been found using transits.
The monitored brightness of the stars will then allow researchers to use spectroscopy to find out the planer's mass, density and atmospheric composition.
Looking at water and other key molecules will also help to determine if there may be life on the planets.
Stephen Rinehart, TESS project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, added: "The targets TESS finds are going to be fantastic subjects for research for decades to come.
"It’s the beginning of a new era of exoplanet research.”