{"id":9194,"date":"2014-11-07T19:31:11","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T00:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9194"},"modified":"2014-11-07T19:31:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T00:31:11","slug":"tess-exoplanet-finder-makes-a-step-towards-approval-video-what-can-seti-learn-from-kepler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9194","title":{"rendered":"TESS exoplanet finder makes a step towards approval + Video: What can SETI learn from Kepler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0TESS \u00a0(Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)<\/a>\u00a0project is developing a follow-on observatory to the Kepler mission<\/a> to look for planets around other stars using the transit method (i.e. the dimming of the starlight when a planet crosses between the star and the line of sight to earth.)<\/p>\n

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an Explorer-class planet finder. In the first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey, TESS will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood, so that detailed characterizations of the planets and their atmospheres can be performed.<\/em><\/p>\n

TESS will monitor 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’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

Today\u00a0NASA announced approval for the\u00a0mission to continue to the next step in design and development. If eventually approved for launch, it would go to space in 2017.\u00a0\u00a0NASA\u2019s TESS Mission Cleared for Next Development Phase | NASA<\/a><\/p>\n

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A panel discussion at last summer’s SETICon 2 event that examined the question, What Can SETI Learn from Kepler?<\/em><\/p>\n

The panel included:<\/p>\n

Geoff Marcy – an astronomy professor at both UC Berkeley and at San Francisco State University. Together with his collaborators, he has discovered over 250 extrasolar planets.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Martin Still – Still began his role as Director of the Kepler Guest Observer Office in August 2009. His scientific interests lie in the study of accretion, compact binary stars, black hole physics, gamma-ray bursts and exoplanet detection and characterization.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seth Shostak – Senior Astronomer, Seth is an enthusiastic participant in the Institute\u2019s SETI observing programs. He also heads up the International Academy of Astronautics\u2019 SETI Permanent Committee ….and is the host of the SETI Institute\u2019s weekly science radio show, \u201cBig Picture Science.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Douglas Caldwell – \u00a0Physicist Doug Caldwell is an expert on one of the most promising schemes for finding small worlds far beyond our solar system: looking for the slight dimming of a star caused when a planet crosses between it and us.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moderator: \u00a0Andrew Fraknoi –\u00a0Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College and Senior Educator at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.<\/em><\/p>\n