NASA is
about to launch a TESS satellite into space, with which scientists hope to discover thousands of new star systems, including both stars and exoplanets. The launch will be carried out using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If the weather is clear and there are no missile problems at the last moment, the satellite will go to its destination.
The total duration of the TESS mission will be two years. If all goes well, it can extend. During this time, the telescope will have to study about 200 thousand stars, which will allow scientists to obtain a huge amount of new data. TESS is the heir to the Kepler telescope, whose fuel comes to an end, without which engines will not be able to position it correctly in space.
The project cost is about $ 200 million, which is quite a lot even on the scale of NASA. The telescope will lead to an unusual elliptical orbit around the Earth, along which no apparatus has yet “walked”. At the point of maximum distance the telescope will be from the Earth at a distance approximately equal to the distance of the Moon from the Earth. It is at this point that the main space observations will be made.
Then comes a rapprochement with the Earth and the transfer of all the accumulated information. One turn in orbit the telescope will make in about 14 days. According to the mission supervisor, the whole team hopes that the launch will be successful and the telescope will be able to observe the space for several years. “Of course, sending various kinds of systems into space is a risky business, but we cannot do anything about it. We believe that we are ready for the launch, ”said the head of the mission, Stephen Rinehart. Below you can watch the launch broadcast.
A veteran in the matter of detecting exoplanets, without any doubt is the Kepler telescope. With it, astronomers could detect thousands of exoplanets, a small percentage of which, according to scientists, are potentially inhabited. Extrapolating the results obtained (2300 exoplanets discovered), astronomers believe that there can be about
2 billion potentially inhabited planets in one Milky Way, where conditions allow liquid water and gaseous atmosphere to exist. Such planets are considered potentially habitable.
Kepler had the opportunity to observe only a small part of the firmament, but even in this case a lot of discoveries were made. The scientists who launched the system understood that exoplanets could not be missing. But their size, mass, possible distance from the star remained unknown. Kepler helped clarify all these moments, and now it is clear that our Earth may not be the only beautiful planet that gives life to all sorts of organisms.
So launched "Kepler"TESS will monitor the brightest stars of the Milky Way, trying to discover other exoplanets that will be classified and listed in directories. As in the case of Kepler, the detection technique is quite simple - the telescope tracks the variations in the brightness of a star and compares their frequency, level, and other parameters. The goal is to detect a planet (or planets) as it passes through the disk of the star.
The TESS team hopes that the telescope will be able to detect about 20 thousand new worlds, among which about 500 earth-like ones may well be found (in any case, no one bothers to assume this). After the discovery, exoplanets will be surveyed using ground-based telescopes, as well as the new system, “James Webb.” This telescope is only being developed, now scientists are testing its performance and build quality. Unfortunately,
there are problems that caused the delay in sending the Webb into space.
Additional study of exoplanets will help to find out their parameters - mass, density and even the presence of various gases in the atmosphere. It is not easy, but possible. If suddenly it turns out that the atmosphere of exoplanets contains water, methane and other "signs of life", even if indirect, scientists will pay even more attention to such a planet.
According to the head of the mission, some members of the team are very much waiting for the discovery of Earth-like planets located in potentially habitable zones. And although the likelihood of this is not so high, scientists are enthusiastic about future discoveries and are very much waiting for the launch of the spacecraft.
But the launch is half the battle, TESS must still enter the calculated orbit, which is not so easy to achieve. The slightest deviation from the course of the rocket, the delay with undocking or something else - that's all, the mission can be considered failed. Before judging whether everything turned out or not, it will take at least 60 days. The device will test all its systems, instruments and engines.
In 2028, the European Space Agency plans to launch a device called Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large). The device will investigate the atmosphere of exoplanets by analyzing the infrared radiation of these celestial bodies. Experts hope that it will be possible to study at least a thousand exoplanets that are considered optimal for the existence of life there.