TESS – NASA’s new planet hunter

TESS aims to outperform the crippled Kepler space observatory, which has found 30 potentially life-bearing exoplanets* in nine years

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Thermal blankets
Solar arrays
Field of view
TESS Tiles sky in 26 sectors
Four cameras: Will scan area of space 400 times larger than that covered by Kepler
Sun shade

SpaceX Falcon 9
Fairing: World’s largest. 
Can carry payload size of school bus
70m
Grid fins: Fold up to stabilise first stage on descent for reuse
Landing legs: Fold down during descent


Finding planets: TESS detects tiny changes in brightness caused by transit of planets across face of stars
Planet
Brightness
Star
Light
Time

KEPLER — Launch: Mar 7, 2009
Candidate exoplanets found: 2,245
Confirmed exoplanets found: 2,342
Confirmed exoplanets found, less than twice Earth-size and in habitable zone: 30
Jul 2012: One of four reaction wheels, used to maintain Kepler’s position, breaks down
May 2013: Second reaction wheel fails
May 2014: K2 extension born, using limited maneuverability to scan smaller red dwarfs

K2 MISSION
Candidate exoplanets found: 479
Confirmed exoplanets found: 307


Sources: NASA, SpaceX
*Exoplanet is planet orbiting star outside our solar system
Satellites not shown to scale
Picture: NASA