NASA new planet hunter satellite
Since the launch of Kepler’s Space telescope in 2009, we’ve identified 2,400 planets of all sizes, entire solar systems and orbiting faraway stars. Unfortunately, many of these planets are still too far away to study. NASA is set to change that, with a Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS for short: set to discover planets at a much faster rate than Kepler, specifically looking at 30-50 million stars in 30 minutes, compared to Kepler’s 170,000 in the same time.
While Kepler’s mission is slowly drawing to an end, TESS is set to launch from Florida, in the US, set to operate for over two years on a “lunar resonant” orbit never been tried before.
Professor Tingay from the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy joined The Daily to discuss this and more
