Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

About Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite:

• It is a NASA missionthat's searching for planets orbiting the brightest stars in Earth's sky. 
• It is designed to discover thousands of exoplanets orbiting around the brightest dwarf stars in the sky.
• It is finding planets ranging from small, rocky worlds to giant planets, showcasing the diversity of planets in our galaxy. It has so far found 410 confirmed exoplanets or “new worlds” circling stars other than the Sun.
• The satellite is a follow-up to NASA's highly successful Kepler space telescope, which found thousands of exoplanets during a decade of work after its launch in 2009.
• It was launched on April 18, 2018, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket out of Cape Canaveral.
• It circles Earth in a unique high Earth orbit of 12 to 15 days, which is inclined in such a way that the telescope’s sky view is largely free from obstructions by our bright planet and the Moon.
• The prime mission ended on July 4, 2020, and TESS is now on an extended mission.
• TESS is finding planets ranging from small, rocky worlds to giant planets, showcasing the diversity of planets in the galaxy.