Buzz
Five months after its launch, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has made history by capturing its first light image on August 7. This image helped scientists identify an extrasolar planet orbiting a star located about 60 light years away from Earth, according to reports from Gizmodo.
TESS is equipped with four 10-centimeter optical telescopes designed to photograph stars from space. The collected data is analyzed for variations in star brightness, which might indicate the presence of an exoplanet. TESS's first light image, released publicly on September 17, showed such a variation.
The potential exoplanet was discovered around Pi Mensae, a bright yellow dwarf star visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere. The planet, named Pi Mensae c, is a "super-Earth" with 4.82 times the mass and about 2.14 times the radius of Earth. It completes its orbit in just 6.27 days, and due to its proximity to its star, it is likely too hot to support life. The research team has submitted their findings to a peer-reviewed journal, though the paper is currently available on the preprint platform arXiv [PDF].
While Pi Mensae c may not be a viable option for human exploration, TESS is still likely to discover planets with such potential. Over the course of two years, the satellite will gather data from 500,000 stars and is anticipated to identify 1000 exoplanets.
