Finding alien life on exoplanets

Anew NASA satellite, which will hunt for exoplanets that have the potential to harbour alien life, is on schedule to launch next week. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 16, at 6:32 pm (EDT).

“We expect TESS will discover a number of planets whose atmospheric compositions, which hold potential clues to the presence of life, could be precisely measured by future observers,” said George Ricker, TESS principal investigator.

With the help of a gravitational assist from the Moon, the spacecraft will settle into a 13.7-day orbit around Earth. Sixty days after launch, and following tests of its instruments, the satellite will begin its initial two-year mission.

The satellite, developed by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, aims to discover thousands of nearby exoplanets, including at least 50 Earth-sized ones. The spacecraft, not much larger than a refrigerator, carries four cameras that will survey the nearest, brightest stars in the sky for signs of passing planets.

TESS will spend two years scanning nearly the entire sky - a field of view that can encompass more than 20 million stars. The first year of observations will map the 13 sectors encompassing the southern sky, and the second year will map the 13 sectors of the northern sky.