There are questions many of us have always asked: Is there life out there? Are there worlds beyond our solar system?
It’s a spacecraft called TESS. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is part of a mission between NASA and MIT could help us find out.
- TESS is a Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
- Purpose is to find exoplanets, or planets like Earth
The goal is to search for exoplanets, or planets that orbit a star outside our own solar system. Most of the 100 known exoplanets are similar in mass to Jupiter.
TESS will use four cameras to scan the entire sky and a heavy duty telescope to get the best possible views.
If the mission is successful, experts say TESS could discover as many 3,000 exoplanets.
"This telescope is specifically designed to look for planets that are like Earth,” explained professor Antonio Paris, the space director at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa. “All the other satellites and telescopes are looking for planets in general."
In theory, TESS could prove that there is life on other planets. Space junkies will have to wait awhile though; the satellite is scheduled to launch in June 2018.