Tess Telescope Most Important Discoveries!
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Humanity has many ways to observe the universe, so join us as we reveal to you the most important discoveries of the TESS Telescope!
8. What Is The TESS?
Before we look at the discoveries of the telescope, it's probably best that we look at the telescope itself, right? Because while you might be familiar with various things that NASA uses to observe the stars, including the legendary Hubble Space Telescope, you might not be familiar with Tess.
Here is the full explanation of the satellite telescope straight from NASA:
"The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA-sponsored Astrophysics Explorer-class mission ( nasa tess mission) that is performing an all-sky survey to search for planets tra
When it was launched in April of 2018 the satellite was put in "a highly-elliptical 13.7 day orbit around the Earth", that way it could look for various exoplanets and other things that were within its mission parameters.
It's able to record many different kinds of footage, and do it in a range of minutes, if not sooner. One of the big reasons for the creation of this satellite telescope was to be better than the Kepler space telescope that had been in use by NASA for years:
7. A Trio Of Planets In A New System
In July 2019, TESS found a trio of planets that were exactly what it was looking for, it was found 73 light-years away in the southern constellation Pictor. The only reason that TESS even found them was because of the various bursts of light that were being emitted by them during the passing of their dwarf star that they orbited.
Because of the newness of this discovery, the section of space that they were found in doesn't even have a name yet. Which goes to prove that humanity even in the year 2019 has many things to learn about the universe as a whole.
To that end, this system is known as TOI 270. Which stands for "TESS Object of Interest".
“This system is exactly what TESS was designed to find — small, temperate planets that pass, or transit, in front of an inactive host star, one lacking excessive stellar activity, such as flares,” said lead researcher Maximilian Günther
6. Black Hole Eating A Star
In the universe as a whole, there are few things more terrifying and yet oddly wondrous than that of a black hole. These entities are born cosmic events such as stars collapsing upon themselves, and they are incredibly powerful because of the massive gravity they emit. They're so strong that they're able to take just about anything that gets into their gravity wells. Including planets, and even stars.
However, because of technology and timing, we've never been able to witness a black hole actually devouring a star in any capacity. That is, until TESS came along and witnessed such an event in September 2019.
5. Earth-Sized Planet
For those that study the universe, one of the biggest goals is to find planets that are very much like Earth, especially in the size department. Because if we can find a planet that is the "right size" and has similar features to Earth, it's a possible candidate for colonization should the time arrive.
For TESS, while it's technically looking for a specific type of planet, that doesn't mean it doesn't find things close to what many are looking for. Including HD 21749c.
4. Comets
It may seem basic compared to planets and black holes, but NASA also has a keen interest in comets and other such space objects.
Ironically enough, the images of a certain comet were captured by TESS before she was even used for her intended purpose of finding planets. This was during the phase of life when she was just in the atmosphere of Earth, and when she was up there she got incredibly clear pictures of the comet known as C/2018 N1. A comet that was actually within our own solar system and detected by other NASA equipment.
3. Planet LHS 3844b
To be fair, we can't give full credit for this find to TESS, it was a combined effort between it and the Spitzer Space Telescope, but the result is the same. TESS was the first to find the planet known as LHS 3844b, and it revealed via study that it was 1.3 times the size of Earth, as well as next to an M-type star at such a range that it would orbit the star in just 11 hours.
"We've got lots of theories about how planetary atmospheres fare around M dwarfs, but we haven't been able to study them empirically," Laura Kreidberg, a researcher..
2. Supernova
One of the important mission parameters of TESS isn't just to look for planets, but to look at a part of space for about a month and occasionally capture what's going on in that part of space.
Because of this, it can witness natural events occurring as they happen. Including the birth of Supernova.
1. The Future Of TESS
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