All About Space Magazine Issue 75 Vorige editie

THE MISSION TO FIND EARTH 2.0
The search for ‘exoplanets’ – worlds orbiting distant stars – has come a long way since the first such objects were confirmed in the mid-1990s. Today thousands of alien worlds are known or suspected, with each new satellite or technique offering fresh insights, which leads to the detection of many new planets. However, fundamental questions remain unanswered, and our experiments produce discoveries that are inevitably biased towards certain type of planets that are easy to detect. Now, a small satellite, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), promises to look at the sky in a whole new way, which could finally answer some key questions particularly when it comes to small planets like Earth. Over the next two years, the team behind TESS hope that it will create the most comprehensive catalogue so far of planets orbiting bright and nearby stars.