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[Music throughout] TESS, the Transiting

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Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is NASA’s newest planet hunter.

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The mission has operated for two years and has now mapped about

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75% of the sky. This enormous area of coverage

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gives scientists unprecedented opportunities to search for new worlds

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beyond our solar system as well as other cosmic phenomena.

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TESS completed its initial sky survey in July 2020.

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This giant mosaic is made from 26 sector images.

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Each sector is a 24-by-96-degree strip of sky,

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monitored by TESS’s four cameras for about a month. Here

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are some of the noteworthy discoveries from TESS’s second year.

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TESS discovered a trio of planets around GJ-357, a

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red dwarf star just 31 light-years away. The system’s farthest planet,

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with about six times Earth’s mass, is especially intriguing.

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It orbits in the outer part of the star’s habitable zone. If this planet has an

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atmosphere thick enough to keep its surface warm, liquid water could exist there.

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TESS found another planetary trio around the star

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L98-59. The innermost world is the littlest found by TESS,

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and is 20% smaller than Earth. Later,

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scientists announced TESS had observed a star being torn apart by a black hole.

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Catching one of these tidal disruption events showcases

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the mission’s ability to spot many kinds of short-lived phenomena, like

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stellar outbursts and supernovae, underscoring TESS’s importance

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for studies beyond exoplanets. In early 2020,

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scientists announced TESS’s first Earth-size planet orbiting in its star’s habitable

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zone. This world, called TOI 700 d,

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is a little larger than Earth and probably rocky. Based on

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TESS and Spitzer data, researchers were even able to model potential

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weather systems. Analysis of the planet’s atmosphere, if it has one,

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will have to await future space-based observatories like NASA's

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James Webb Space Telescope. Missons like TESS — and later Webb —

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help contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary

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research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could

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harbor life as we know it. TESS has found many systems different

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from our own.  TOI 1338 has a Neptune-size planet

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orbiting a pair of stars.  KELT-9 has a fast-spinning

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star with hot poles and a cooler equator.  KELT-9 b

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orbits over the poles, resulting in star-induced seasons that only

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last a few hours. Now that its primary mission is

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complete, TESS will return to the southern sky for another yearlong survey.

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Many new planets, as well as more brief cataclysmic events,

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await astronomers as they scour the flood

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of TESS observations.

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Explore: solar system & beyond

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NASA