The spacecraft then will adjust its orientation and spend another 27 days collecting another sector. TESSвЂ™s four cameras are arranged to shoot 24-degree-wide squares stretching from the celestial equator to the poles, spending 27 days to collect a single 96-degree long sector. Based on statistical analysis, astronomers now believe virtually every star in the Milky Way hosts, or once hosted, one or more planets.Д«uilt by Orbital ATK, TESS was designed to take the search for exoplanets to another level, vastly expanding the number of stars monitored. Since its launch in 2009, NASAвЂ™s Kepler space telescope, which also monitored shadow transits, has discovered thousands of exoplanets in a target area much smaller than TESSвЂ™s. вЂњTESS itself will not be able to find life beyond Earth,вЂќ he said, вЂњbut TESS will help us figure out where to point our larger telescopes in that search.вЂќ Hertz said with those larger telescopes, вЂњweвЂ™ll be able to look for tell-tale signs in the atmospheres of those planets that might tell us what the planets are made of and perhaps even whether they have the kinds of gases that on Earth are an indication of life.вЂќ

вЂњTESS is basically the discoverer, itвЂ™s going to find the really exciting planets that we can then follow up with powerful telescopes.вЂќ вЂњYou can think of TESS as the finder scope for the James Webb Space Telescope,вЂќ astrophysicist Padi Boyd, TESS deputy project scientist, told CBS News. Prime candidates from TESSвЂ™s survey will, in turn, be studied in detail by NASAвЂ™s powerful James Webb Space Telescope after its launch in 2020, by an upcoming European Space Agency space telescope and follow-on spacecraft as well as huge ground-based observatories currently under construction. вЂњMissions like TESS will help us keep learning so that eventually we can answer the question, are we alone? Or do we just have the best prime real estate in the galaxy?вЂќД«y carefully studying how the light dims and then brightens, astronomers analyzing TESS data will be able to detect the presence of worlds around countless stars across 85 percent of the sky, ranging from Earth-size planets to so-called вЂњsuper EarthsвЂќ and on up the scale to gas giants as large or larger than Jupiter.Д«ut the goal is to identify stars hosting relatively small, rocky Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zones of their suns at distances that allow water to exist as a liquid, a requirement for life as it is known on Earth. Now, we know that for every star in the sky that you look at, thereвЂ™s probably a family of planets around it. вЂњUp until 20 years ago, we didnвЂ™t know of any planets beyond our own solar system. вЂњPeople have always wanted to know are we alone in the universe,вЂќ said Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA Headquarters.

In a modest mission with the grandest of intentions, a SpaceXВ Falcon 9 rocket launched a planet-hunting satellite for NASA Wednesday that will measure the light from millions of stars, on the lookout for indications of Earth-like, potentially habitable worlds scattered across the nearby Milky Way.Д«uilding on the legacy of NASAвЂ™s trail-blazing Kepler mission, which showed that exoplanets are commonplace, the $337 million Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, will study vastly more stars across 85 percent of the sky in a bid to pinpoint thousands of new planets with the emphasis on Earth-size or slightly larger.

Spacex launches nasa planet-hunting s