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Briefing
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- New Satellite Launch – NASA launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 18, 2018, in search for exoplanets outside of Earth’s solar system that can sustain life
- Replaces Kepler – TESS to replace Kepler Space Telescope, launched in 2009, which will run out of fuel soon
- Better than Kepler – Will survey areas 400 times larger than what Kepler Space Telescope observed, and look for stars 30-100 times brighter than observed by Kepler
- Transit Method – Will search for exoplanets using transit method, which look for slight dips in brightness of stars caused by a passing planet
- Potential Exoplanets – NASA expects to find thousands of potential exoplanets, of which 300 will be size of Earth or double its size
- Data Availability – Satellite to collect 27 gigabytes of data per day, equivalent to 6,500 song files, transmitting data back to Earth every two weeks, with NASA to archive all data and make them publicly available for download
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