Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA Explorer mission launching in 2018 to study exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. TESS will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. It will monitor more than 200,000 stars, looking for temporary dips in brightness caused by planets transiting across these stars. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify a wide range of planets, from Earth-sized to gas giants. The mission will find exoplanet candidates for follow-up observation from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope, which will determine whether these candidates could support life.


For more information, please visit the TESS website.

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Animations

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    TESS Spacecraft Animations
    2018.01.08
    The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat.
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    TESS Coverage Animations
    2018.03.28
    Animation showing the TESS spacecraft and the coverage of its four cameras. Each camera covers a 24 degrees-square patch of sky and the four cameras are arranged in a vertical strip called an observation sector.
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    TESS-Kepler Field-of-View Animation
    2018.03.28
    This animation begins with Kepler's first observation zone and the constellation Cygnus. It adds a single TESS camera field for comparison, and then pulls back to show all four TESS camera fields--called an observation sector--and the amount of sky they cover. The sphere of the sky unwraps into a flat projection and all the regions observed by Kepler appear. TESS's full 2 year coverage appears, starting in the southern hemisphere and ending in the northern. Finally, the map is rewrapped into a sphere.

    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (IPAC)

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    TESS Social Media Products
    2018.04.03
    Looping gif of the TESS spacecraft
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    TESS Artist Concept Images
    2017.09.22
    Artist concept images of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
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    TESS Beauty Pass Animation
    2016.09.20
    Beauty pass of the TESS satellite.

Videos

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    TESS Overview
    2018.03.28
    TESS Overview Description Here.

    Music: "Drive to Succeed" from Killer Tracks

    Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

    Complete transcript available.

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    TESS Shorts
    2018.04.03
    NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite - TESS will fly a never-before-used orbit that completes two circuits around the Earth every time the Moon orbits. This special orbit will allow TESS’s cameras to monitor each patch of sky continuously from nearly a month at a time. To get into this orbit, TESS will make a series of loops culminating in a lunar gravitational-assist, which will give it the push it needs. TESS will reach its orbit about 60 days after launch.

    Music: "Drive to Succeed" from Killer Tracks

    Complete transcript available.

    Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

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    TESS Mission Trailer
    2015.03.20
    This video introduces the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This is a joint mission between NASA and MIT that will scan the entire sky searching for exoplanets, or planets outside our Solar System. Using four state-of-the-art cameras, TESS will monitor over 500,000 stars, looking for changes in their brightness that signal a planet crossing over. The stars TESS looks at will be 30-100 times brighter than those observed by the Kepler satellite, making follow-up observations much easier. Using TESS data, missions like the James Webb Space Telescope can determine specific characteristics of these planets, including whether they could support life. TESS is scheduled to launch in 2017.
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    TESS Fly Your Exoplanet
    2017.04.03
    The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is taking your art to space! Draw a picture of an exoplanet, or planet orbiting another star, that you think TESS could find. It could fly on the TESS spacecraft, launching in 2018! Download the form at https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/fly_your_exoplanet.html and send us your drawing today! Deadline for submissions is November 20, 2017.
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    TESS Undergoes Integration and Testing
    2018.02.08
    The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is the next step in the search for planets outside of our solar system, including those that could support life. The mission will find exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars, events called transits. TESS will survey 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun to search for transiting exoplanets. The mission is scheduled to launch March 20, 2018, and no later than June 2018.

Engineering

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    TESS Launch Footage
    2018.04.26
    NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched April 18 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. TESS is NASA’s next mission to search for planets outside of our solar system, known as exoplanets, including those that could support life. The mission is expected to catalog thousands of planet candidates and vastly increase the current number of known exoplanets. TESS will find the most promising exoplanets orbiting relatively nearby stars, giving future researchers a rich set of new targets for more comprehensive follow-up studies, including the potential to assess their capacity to harbor life.
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    TESS Arrives at KSC
    2018.03.05
    NASA's next planet-hunting mission has arrived in Floriday to begin preparation for launch. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida this spring. TESS was delivered Feb. 12 aboard a truck from Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, where it was assembled and tested in 2017. Over the next month, the spacecraft will be prepped for launch at Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
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    TESS Solar Array Deploy
    2018.03.13
    NASA's next planet-hunting mission is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin preparation for launch. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida this spring. TESS is being prepped for launch at Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
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    TESS Spacecraft Beauty Shots
    2017.11.20
    The fully integrated Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which will launch in 2018 to find thousands of new planets orbiting other stars.
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    TESS Integration Prep B-Roll
    2017.05.18
    The TESS spacecraft being prepared for integration of the TESS instrument at Orbital ATK.
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    TESS Camera Mounting Timelapse
    2017.08.03
    The four TESS cameras being mounted to the camera plate in preparation for integration to spacecraft at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va.
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    TESS Camera Mounting Photos
    2017.08.03
    TESS cameras being mounted to the camera plate at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va. before installation onto the spacecraft.
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    TESS Camera Integration Photos
    2017.09.11
    The TESS cameras being integrated onto the spacecraft at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va.
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    TESS Camera Integration B-Roll
    2017.09.13
    Footage of TESS cameras being integrated onto spacecraft at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va.
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    TESS Solar Array Deployment Photos
    2017.10.26
    Photos of the TESS solar arrays being deployed at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va. before the assembled spacecraft is moved into testing.
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    TESS Vibration Testing Photos
    2017.10.26
    Photos of TESS spacecraft being tested on vibration table at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va.
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    TESS Solar Array Deployment B-Roll
    2017.10.27
    Video Footage of the TESS spacecraft solar arrays being deployed for testing at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Va.

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  •
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  •
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  •
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  •
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    Exoplanet Live Shots 2.23.17
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    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. You can find graphics HERE that go with this story. The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water–key to life as we know it–under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.
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    Mercury Transit Live Shots May 9, 2016
    2016.05.02

    NASA will broadcast a stunning view of Mercury on May 9 as it journeys across the sun. The event, known as a transit, occurs when Mercury passes directly between Earth and the sun. This rare phenomenon will cause Mercury to look like a black dot gliding across the sun’s face. Mercury’s last transit was in 2006, and it won’t happen again until 2019!

    Starting at 7:12 a.m. EDT, Mercury will spend more than seven hours travelling across the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory will take the first near real time, ultra-high definition images ever for this event. This is also an opportunity for NASA scientists to fine tune the spacecraft’s cameras, using a method that can only be done during a transit.

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    2017 Spring Equinox Live Shots
    2017.03.15
    March 20 Equinox Marks the Start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere

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    It may not feel like it this week in parts of the country, but spring begins in just a few days. March 20 kicks off the first day of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere. On March 20, the day of the spring Equinox, the sun will pass directly over the Earth’s equator, giving the entire planet equal hours of day and night. This is the seasonal marker in Earth’s orbit around the sun when daylight hours begin to get longer than night.

    This dance of the solar system is just one celestial event we’ll see this year. On August 21 all 50 states in the U.S. will be in prime position to see a partial or even a total solar eclipse, which happens when the moon is in perfect position to blot out the sun’s bright disk. The last time the U.S. saw a coast-to-coast solar eclipse was in 1918! The path of totality runs from Oregon to South Carolina.

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