After NASA has exposed that its current exoplanets-hunting telescope, the Kepler Space Telescope will remain without fuel in a few months, now, NASA has just stated that it will launch the brand-new exoplanets-hunting telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), on April 16th.
TESS is believed to discover more than 2,000 exoplanets
As the new statements revealed, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will be placed in orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which will launch from the Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral, in Florida, the US.
In about one week from now, on March 28th, NASA will talk the last details of the future TESS mission.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is expected to discover thousands of exoplanets (planets that are located outside the Solar System) which are orbiting bright stars in the close vicinity of our Solar System.
Soon, TESS will work together with the brand-new NASA James Webb Space Telescope
The TESS exoplanets-hunting telescope will soon get a partner in the finding and studying exoplanets, the NASA James Webb Space Telescope, which will soon replace the Hubble Space Telescope.
James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of analyzing the atmospheric composition of the exoplanets found by TESS and will reveal which one of those far-distant exoplanets could be able to hold life, according to NASA.
At first, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will examine approximately 200,000 bright stars which are close to our Sun, trying to depict which of these are orbited by planets.
The NASA engineers are very optimistic regarding TESS capabilities and, from their first estimates, TESS will discover more than 2,000 exoplanets. Even more, the scientists from NASA estimated that about 15% of these 2,000 exoplanets will be of the same size with the Earth or 2 times larger than the Earth, thus, they could be capable of sustaining life, similar to our planet.
In conclusion, NASA has set the TESS launch date for April 16th and TESS could be capable of finding more than 2,000 exoplanets.
