from the When-you-see-the-Southern-Cross-for-the-first-time dept.
NASA panorama reveals starry glory of the southern sky
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is a planet hunter extraordinaire that gets to gaze deeply into space. This[*] circular image represents TESS' view of the southern sky, complete with a stunning appearance by the Milky Way.
NASA released the mosaic on Tuesday. It consists of 208 images taken in TESS' first year of operation through July 2019. The spacecraft trained its four cameras on 13 different sections of the southern sky and spent nearly a month watching each area.
TESS is looking for the telltale dimming of stars that shows exoplanets have passed in front of them.
[...] TESS is now focused on imaging the northern sky, where astronomers expect to find many more potential exoplanets.
[*] Image can be viewed on c|net or as part of a 2m36s YouTube video.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday November 06 2019, @12:06PM (3 children)
Doesn't this only show systems with planets directly between Earth and the parent star in a given month?
How would this capture something like Jupiter, which orbits once every 11 years, and even if it did transit, would mean less than a 1% chance of it transiting in that month.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 06 2019, @12:36PM
I'm looking at that image [cbsistatic.com] for already 10 minutes and none, not a single star, blinked. I therefore declare the mission a failure and a huge waste of money (which would find a better use if given to me).
Is this what you wanted to say?
(Score: 3, Funny) by zocalo on Wednesday November 06 2019, @01:55PM
On the upside, that the chances of finding an exoplanet this way are so slim, yet we've managed to find so many of them (albeit in a vast pool of candidate stars), does statistically mean that planets are incredibly plentiful in the universe, which bodes well for some amazing discoveries in the future as additional detection techniques are developed and deployed, not least of which is the liklihood of some of them being capable of supporting - or actually supporting - life.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:38PM
Look at this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TESS_science_sector_suddivision.jpg [wikipedia.org]
Some parts will get observed for a lot longer than ~1 month.
And that is only the plan for the first 2 years. After that, they could change up the plans and observe a smaller portion of the sky for a longer time.
If you can find exoplanets with periods from 1-6 months, some might be habitable around red dwarfs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1) by MyOpinion on Wednesday November 06 2019, @12:40PM (3 children)
NASA, 1958: "Permanent, underground base on the Moon by 1968"
NASA, 2019:
Truth is like a Lion: you need not defend it; let it loose, and it defends itself. https://discord.gg/3FScNwc
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 06 2019, @12:42PM
They run out of special effects budget, can't run a Big Brother house on the Moon for long.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 06 2019, @08:25PM (1 child)
That is not NASA's fault.
If politicians did not use NASA's budget as a tool to get re-elected, NASA would no doubt have a Moon base by now.
(Score: -1) by MyOpinion on Friday November 08 2019, @04:50PM
$50,000,000 (FIFTY MILLION) plus chump change PER DAY is not enough?
How much more do you believe they need?
What are you willing to let go of to let them have it?
Truth is like a Lion: you need not defend it; let it loose, and it defends itself. https://discord.gg/3FScNwc
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday November 07 2019, @12:20AM
Any chance this could be a live desktop wallpaper?
That would be cool!!