NASA's next exoplanet hunter to launch in 2017

The hunt for another Earth is going to get a lot bigger. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is set to launch in 2017, NASA announced late last week. With a price tag of $200 million, TESS will be the first space-based mission to scan the entire sky for exoplanets, with a particular focus on small, rocky worlds around nearby stars.

TESS will be a successor to the Kepler space telescope, which has discovered more than 100 confirmed exoplanets and thousands of possible planets since its launch in 2009. Kepler has been staring 3000-light-years deep into a single patch of sky, looking for the tell-tale dips in starlight as a planet passes in front of ? or transits ? a star as seen from Earth. Although Kepler has not spotted one close to Earth yet, statistical analysis of the planets it has found suggests that the closest Earth-like world could be orbiting a star a mere 6.5 light years away.

TESS will also look for transiting planets, but it will use an array of wide-field cameras to scan roughly two million of the brightest and closest stars in our galactic neighbourhood. One of the mission's goals will be to find Earth-size exoplanets in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water can exist.

"Early results [from Kepler] indicate that TESS won't have to look very far to find a world potentially like ours," says Natalie Batalha, an astrophysicist and Kepler team member. "If they're there ? and Kepler tells us they should be ? TESS will find them."

House hunting

The team hopes that TESS will find up to 1000 exoplanets in its first two years of searching, giving astronomers a wealth of new worlds close enough to study in more detail. For instance, once nearby exoplanets have been identified, the James Webb Space Telescope should be able to scan their atmospheres for hints of life.

"TESS exoplanets will represent the best chances for detecting signs of organic life on another world outside our solar system for the next several decades," predicts Jon Jenkins, a scientist on both the TESS and Kepler teams.

Batalha agrees. "It's time to find out what the rest of the houses in the neighbourhood look like. Both Kepler and TESS are taking us one step closer to meeting the neighbours."

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2a7b5c94/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn233590Enasas0Enext0Eexoplanet0Ehunter0Eto0Elaunch0Ein0E20A170Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

evan longoria john edwards conocophillips capitals ryan braun may day dan savage