TESS, a new telescope to search for exoplanets, has made the first picture
New space telescope called TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), launched by NASA last month, has sent to Earth the first image.
NASA launched a new space telescope TESS on 18 April — with the help of the carrier rocket SpaceX Falcon 9. At the moment the device has already made a gravity-assist maneuver with the moon and will soon reach the planned orbit to begin a two-year mission to study exoplanets.
TESS is equipped with four powerful cameras, and, as reported by NASA, the device has sent the first photos taken of one of them, the report said the space Agency. In the center of a picture taken on April 26, is the constellation Centaurus, visible on the bottom left, a good bright star Hadar, and right above the visible edge of the nebula the Coal Sack. In the pictures, as noted by NASA, shows more than 200 000 stars. According to the Agency, this the — test, and the first image in high quality will be published in June.
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Like Kepler, TESS will search for exoplanets using the transit photometry. It is expected that the coverage of the new instrument will exceed the area coverage of the “Kepler” 400 times. In total, according to plans NASA, TESS will examine more than 200,000 transit events (when the planet passes in front of the disk of the star and the light of the last few drops).