On April 18 earlier this year, NASA launched the TESS satellite into space, and into an orbit flying past our Moon.
It¡¯s job is to capture images of alien planets far beyond our reach (at least for now). And TESS just sent back its first images of deep space.?
Images courtesy: NASA
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is Kepler¡¯s successor, and has been tasked with discovering exoplanets by monitoring how the light reaching us from distant stars is blocked by these planets¡¯ orbits. Back in May, Tess snapped a two-second exposure shot that was a simple test of its working condition. Now, NASA has released a longer 30-minute photo from August 7, which has been stitched together from the onboard cameras, and it is sensational.
The picture shows a dozen different constellations, Small and Large Magellanic clouds, dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and more. Most importantly though, it depicts a multitude of stars that could house planets we¡¯ve never seen before.?
¡°This swath of the sky's southern hemisphere includes more than a dozen stars we know have transiting planets based on previous studies from ground observatories,¡± says TESS principal investigator George Ricker.?
Click here for the full resolution image
This ¡°first light¡± image is only one of the 26 different sectors of the sky TESS is expected to monitor over the next two years. Each sector will receive the satellite¡¯s attention for 27 days, over the course of the two-year mission.