Insights · April 16th, 2018
Time for another SpaceX live launch, this one the TESS mission, set for 3:51 Pacific time today. [Note: the mission was postponed until Wednesday April 18. Click the video below and you can set an alert to be sent to you.] The TESS mission is a quite exciting NASA mission to search for exoplanets. TESS, or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, will survey the Southern Hemisphere in its first year, the Northern Hemisphere the second year. The hope is that in addition to finding numerous gas giants and other planets, this survey will “identify about 50 worlds that are less than four times Earth’s diameter. They hope at least a few of those planets will be in the habitable zone of their stars; if TESS achieves this goal, these worlds would add to a noteworthy catalog of nearby planet-hosting stars, including Proxima Centauri, which is just 4 light-years from Earth, and TRAPPIST-1.”
