This is not the first time, and it won’t be the last time, that we talk about NASA’s planet-finding telescope TESS on UnCached. Earlier this week, the satellite that is scouring the galaxy for exoplanets reported its first sightings of what could be an alien home.
Well, that’s what we thought until we studied it a little closer. This primary exoplanet found by TESS is approximately 60 light years away from our solar system. Just like earth, this exoplanet also orbits a very bright star, but not the sun. Instead, it orbits the star Pi Mensae.
TESS was able to find the exoplanet, dubbed Pi Mensae c., by looking for dips in the star’s light. This lack of brightness shows that an object is orbiting the star, in this case a planet. Despite only being in space a short while, this space craft’s 2 year mission is off to a hot start. TESS is expected to find many more exoplanets as it monitors 500,000 nearby stars.
Make sure to check out the rest of the playlist above for more videos on TESS and the findings this telescope makes.
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