8 Jun 2017

TESS is a space telescope that will search for exoplanets using the transit method and will launch in March 2018. While Kepler surveyed part of the Milky Way to provide an accurate estimate of the number of exoplanets, TESS’s survey will help identify some of the most interesting planets for further exploration – those that may turn out to be the most Earth-like. TESS will provide information about the mass and density of planets, allowing researchers to determine which will be the best candidates for further examination by telescopes such as the James Webb Telescope (a so-called “next generation space telescope” with greater resolution and sensitivity than previously known which will launch in October 2018). The SETI Institute is deeply involved with TESS, with several SETI Institute scientists bringing their experience and learning from their work with Kepler to bear.

“There is going to be very little overlap between the stars that Kepler observed and the stars that TESS will observe, so their data will be analyzed separately,” said SETI Institute scientist Jeff Coughlin in the July 2017 issue of Astronomy Magazine. “However, we have learned a lot of the lessons from Kepler that we can apply to TESS to find planets faster and more reliably. . . Every additional planet we find, from any mission, is very valuable in order to perform detailed study of as many as possible. This lets us better compare how different planets form and evolve, establish which factors allow rocky planets to form and maintain substantial atmospheres, and ultimately one day be able to probe nearby planets to establish is any of them have an atmosphere like ours.”