{"id":10209,"date":"2015-03-22T17:38:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T21:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10209"},"modified":"2015-03-22T17:38:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T21:38:59","slug":"tess-will-hunt-for-exoplanets-starting-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10209","title":{"rendered":"TESS will hunt for exoplanets starting in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/kepler.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kepler<\/a> space observatory proved the effectiveness of the <a href=\"http:\/\/planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov\/page\/methods\" target=\"_blank\">transit technique<\/a> in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/kepler.nasa.gov\/Mission\/discoveries\/\" target=\"_blank\">finding exoplanets<\/a>. After <a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4004\" target=\"_blank\">losing one reaction wheel<\/a> too many, it was assumed that Kepler was an ex-exoplanet finder. However,\u00a0the clever Kepler scientists and engineers found a way to <a href=\"http:\/\/keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov\/K2\/MissionConcept.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">use\u00a0solar radiation pressure<\/a> to keep the telescope steady in its viewing of distant stars. Now renamed the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov\/K2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kepler K2 mission<\/a>, the observatory\u00a0continues its planet spotting, albeit less efficiently than before.<\/p>\n<p>So Kepler keeps adding to the list of exoplanets for now but a whole new improved exoplanet hunter is expected to\u00a0go to space in\u00a0August 2017.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tess.gsfc.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_d\">TESS<\/a> (<em>Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite<\/em>) will monitor\u00a0more stars than Kepler\u00a0and it should also do better at finding small planets, i.e. earth-sized ones, orbiting around them.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tess.gsfc.nasa.gov\/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">TESS will monitor<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>the brightnesses of more than 500,000 stars during a two year mission, searching for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Transits occur when a planet&#8217;s orbit carries it directly in front of its parent star as viewed from Earth. TESS is expected to catalog more than 3000 transiting exoplanet candidates, including a sample of \u223c500 Earth-sized and \u2018Super Earth\u2019 planets, with radii less than twice that of the Earth. TESS will detect small rock-and-ice planets orbiting a diverse range of stellar types and covering a wide span of orbital periods, including rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a video overview of the project:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mpViVEO-ymc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We can also hope it has much better\u00a0and more numerous reaction wheels&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kepler space observatory proved the effectiveness of the transit technique in\u00a0finding exoplanets. After losing one reaction wheel too many, it was assumed that Kepler was an ex-exoplanet finder. However,\u00a0the clever Kepler scientists and engineers found a way to use\u00a0solar radiation pressure to keep the telescope steady in its viewing of distant stars. Now renamed &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10209\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TESS will hunt for exoplanets starting in 2017<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[46,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exoplanets","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2EF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5946,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5946","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":0},"title":"American Astronomical Society conf + New Kepler results + Reviving Kepler + Starshades","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0\u00a0223rd Meeting\u00a0\u00a0of the\u00a0American Astronomical Society is taking place in Washington this week. Exoplanets and the Kepler observatory have been a topic of discussion today. Jeff Foust is posting notes from some of the presentations:\u00a0Jeff Foust (jeff_foust) on Twitter. === The Kepler space observatory group released this today:\u00a0NASA Kepler Provides Insight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/G68sqgRhP2E\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11281,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11281","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":1},"title":"Video: Update on the Kepler exoplanet search","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Kepler space observatory was thought to be out of the exoplanet finding business for\u00a0good due\u00a0to a failure in the guidance hardware. \u00a0However, the\u00a0system was returned to action using a clever technique with solar light pressure to maintain the telescope's pointing stability. The K2 Mission, as this new phase of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/pZIc_SO-qDQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11048,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11048","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":2},"title":"Latest Kepler exoplanet finding to be announced","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA is going to make an announcement today at 12:00 noon EDT about the latest discovery by\u00a0the Kepler \u00a0space observatory: NASA News Audio The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10711,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10711","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":3},"title":"William Borucki, leader of Kepler exoplanet finder, wins $1M Shaw Prize","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"After leading a multi-decade struggle to get the Kepler Observatory\u00a0funded, built, launched into space, and successfully finding exoplanets, it's good to see William Borucki receiving\u00a0well-deserved recognition and reward: \u00a0The Shaw Prize - Top prizes for astronomy, life science and mathematics Shaw Prizes hail hunt for habitable planets -\u00a0Science\/AAAS Kepler\u2019s Shaw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=37"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14135,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14135","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":4},"title":"Video: &#8220;Latest Exoplanet Results from NASA&#8217;s Kepler\/K2 Mission&#8221;","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an update on the latest exoplanet findings by the Kepler space observatory\u00a0and a preview of\u00a0the next generation of exoplanet search instruments:\u00a0Latest Exoplanet Results from NASA's Kepler\/K2 Mission | SETI Institute The all-sky TESS mission will soon revolutionize our view of planets transiting the nearest, brightest stars to the Sun,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exoplanets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exoplanets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/qPL9cFg8e38\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5179,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5179","url_meta":{"origin":10209,"position":5},"title":"Kepler data analysis increases exoplanet candidate count by 833","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Continued examination of the Kepler Observatory data has increased the number of candidate planets by\u00a0833 to over 3500. 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