SPACEX LAUNCHES NASA PLANET HUNTING S TV

'One of the many amazing things that Kepler told us is that planets are everywhere and there are all kinds of planets out there,' said Patricia 'Padi' Boyd, director of the TESS guest investigator program at NASA`s Goddard Spaceflight Center. Kepler`s trove of more than 2,300 confirmed planets outside our solar was impressive, but most were too distant and dim to be examined further. The new spacecraft will focus on nearby exoplanets, those in the range of 30 to 300 light-years away. Both use the same system of detecting planetary transits, or shadows cast as they pass in front of their star. Its first scientific data is expected in July.TESS will survey far more cosmic terrain than its predecessor, NASA`s Kepler Space Telescope, which launched in 2009.

Next, TESS will spend two months making its way into the correct orbit. NASA also confirmed that at 7:53 pm (2353 GMT), the spacecraft's twin solar arrays successfully deployed. Less than 10 minutes after launch, the rocket's first stage returned to an upright landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, marking SpaceX's 24th touchdown of a rocket booster. Yesterday, the rocket performed flawlessly. The initial launch attempt Monday was scrubbed about two hours before planned takeoff, so that SpaceX engineers could perform extra checks on the rocket's navigation systems. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990 aboard the space shuttle, and the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to lift off in 2020, should be able to reveal more about planets' mass, density and the makeup of their atmosphere - all clues to habitability. If planets are everywhere, then it is time for us to find the planets that are closest to us orbiting bright nearby stars, because these will be the touchstone system.' 'One of the many amazing things that Kepler told us is that planets are everywhere and there are all kinds of planets out there,' said Patricia 'Padi' Boyd, director of the TESS guest investigator program at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center. Kepler's trove of more than 2,300 confirmed planets outside our solar was impressive, but most were too distant and dim to be examined further. You could have an entire constellation, like Orion, in the field of view of one of these cameras.' TESS will survey far more cosmic terrain than its predecessor, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which launched in 2009. 'They are only about four inches (10 centimeters) across, the lenses.

'TESS's four cameras are tiny but mighty,' she said.

She was part of a team that built four cameras that serve as the spacecraft's eyes.

SPACEX LAUNCHES NASA PLANET HUNTING S TV

It was so emotional,' said Natalia Guerrero, a TESS researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview on NASA TV after the launch. 'The stories of these planets will continue on, long after their detection,' Martin Still, TESS program scientist, said on Wednesday. Its discoveries will be studied further by ground- and space-based telescopes for signs of habitability, including a rocky terrain, a size similar to Earth and a distance from their sun - neither too close nor too far - that allows the right temperature for liquid water.

Spacex launches nasa planet-hunting s