Global InformationTransiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite information
 | This article needs to be updated. (January 2022) |
 TESS satellite | |
| Names | Explorer 95 TESS MIDEX-7 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Space observatory[1][2] |
| Operator | NASA / MIT |
| COSPAR ID | 2018-038A |
| SATCAT no. | 43435 |
| Website | tess tess |
| Mission duration | 2 years (planned) 6 years, 29 days (in progress) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Explorer XCV |
| Spacecraft type | Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite |
| Bus | LEOStar-2/750[3] |
| Manufacturer | Orbital ATK |
| Launch mass | 362 kg (798 lb) [4] |
| Dimensions | 3.7 × 1.2 × 1.5 m (12.1 × 3.9 × 4.9 ft) |
| Power | 530 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 18 April 2018, 22:51:30 UTC[5] |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 4 (B1045.1) |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral, SLC-40 |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Entered service | 25 July 2018 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Highly elliptical orbit |
| Perigee altitude | 108,000 km (67,000 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 375,000 km (233,000 mi) |
| Inclination | 37.00° |
| Period | 13.70 days |
 TESS satellite mission patch Explorer program | |
- NASA launches exoplanet-hunting satellite TESS
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission.[6] It was launched on 18 April 2018, atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and was placed into a highly elliptical 13.70-day orbit around the Earth.[6][2][7][8][9] The first light image from TESS was taken on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.[1][10][11]
In the two-year primary mission, TESS was expected to detect about 1,250 transiting exoplanets orbiting the targeted stars, and an additional 13,000 orbiting stars not targeted but observed.[12] After the end of the primary mission around 4 July 2020, scientists continued to search its data for more planets, while the extended missions acquires additional data. As of 15 November 2023[update], TESS had identified 6,977 candidate exoplanets, of which 402 had been confirmed.[13]
The primary mission objective for TESS was to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period. The TESS satellite uses an array of wide-field cameras to perform a survey of 85% of the sky. With TESS, it is possible to study the mass, size, density and orbit of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample of rocky planets in the habitable zones of their host stars. TESS provides prime targets for further characterization by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future. While previous sky surveys with ground-based telescopes have mainly detected giant exoplanets and the Kepler space telescope has mostly found planets around distant stars that are too faint for characterization, TESS finds many small planets around the nearest stars in the sky. TESS records the nearest and brightest main sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which are the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.[14] Detailed information about such planetary systems with hot Jupiters makes it possible to better understand the architecture of such systems.[15][16]
Led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with seed funding from Google,[17] on 5 April 2013, it was announced that TESS, along with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), had been selected by NASA for launch.[18][19] On 18 July 2019, after the first year of operation, the southern portion of the survey was completed, and the northern survey was started. The primary mission ended with the completion of the northern survey on 4 July 2020, which was followed by the first extended mission. The first extended mission concluded in September 2022 and the spacecraft entered its second extended mission [20] which should last for another three years.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
NYT-20180920was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Overbye, Dennis (26 March 2018). "Meet Tess, Seeker of Alien Worlds". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Ricker2015was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "TESS: Discovering Exoplanets Orbiting Nearby Stars - Fact Sheet" (PDF). Orbital ATK. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ^ Gebhardt, Chris (18 April 2018). "SpaceX successfully launches TESS on a mission to search for near-Earth exoplanets". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- ^ a b Ricker, George R.; Winn, Joshua N.; Vanderspek, Roland; Latham, David W.; Bakos, Gáspár Á.; Bean, Jacob L.; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Brown, Timothy M.; Buchhave, Lars; Butler, Nathaniel R.; Butler, R. Paul; Chaplin, William J.; Charbonneau, David; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Clampin, Mark; Deming, Drake; Doty, John; De Lee, Nathan; Dressing, Courtney; Dunham, Edward W.; Endl, Michael; Fressin, Francois; Ge, Jian; Henning, Thomas; Holman, Matthew J.; Howard, Andrew W.; Ida, Shigeru; Jenkins, Jon M.; et al. (24 October 2014). "Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite". Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems. 1. SPIE Digital Library: 014003. arXiv:1406.0151. Bibcode:2015JATIS...1a4003R. doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.1.1.014003.
- ^ "Launch Schedule". Spaceflight Now. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
bbc-amoswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "NASA Planet Hunter on Its Way to Orbit". NASA. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NASA-20180917awas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
NASA-20180917bwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Barclay, Thomas; Pepper, Joshua; Quintana, Elisa V. (25 October 2018). "A Revised Exoplanet Yield from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)". The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series. 239 (1): 2. arXiv:1804.05050. Bibcode:2018ApJS..239....2B. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/aae3e9. ISSN 1538-4365.
- ^ "Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS)". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System. NASA. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "NASA FY 2015 President's Budget Request Summary" (PDF). NASA. 10 March 2014. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Wenz, John (10 October 2019). "Lessons from scorching hot weirdo-planets". Knowable Magazine. Annual Reviews. doi:10.1146/knowable-101019-2. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ Dawson, Rebekah I.; Johnson, John Asher (14 September 2018). "Origins of Hot Jupiters". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 56 (1): 175–221. arXiv:1801.06117. Bibcode:2018ARA&A..56..175D. doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051853. S2CID 119332976. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Chandler, David (19 March 2008). "MIT aims to search for Earth-like planets with Google's help". MIT.
- ^ Harrington, J. D. (5 April 2013). "NASA Selects Explorer Investigations for Formulation" (Press release). NASA. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "NASA selects MIT-led TESS project for 2017 mission". MIT. 5 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- ^ Barclay, Thomas. "NASA - TESS Science Support Center". TESS. Retrieved 4 November 2022.[permanent dead link]
