TESS Satellite tagged posts

Since the discovery in 1995 of a planet in orbit around a star other than the sun, research in exoplanetology has revolutionized our knowledge of planetary systems. The SPIRou instrument, installed at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, contributes to these results, in particular by observing the possible planets identified by the TESS observatory satellite.

By combining the data from both instruments, the planet TOI-1695b has been discovered, and is one of the new sub-Neptune and super-Earth type planets revealed by SPIRou around stars less massive and cooler than the sun, by an international team in which the Institut d’astrophysique de Paris plays a major role...

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a mission designed to comb the heavens for exoplanets, has discovered its first potentially habitable world outside of our own solar system – and an international team of astronomers has characterized the super-Earth, about 31 light-years away, named GJ 357 d.

“This is exciting, as this is TESS’s first discovery of a nearby super-Earth that could harbor life – TESS is a small, mighty mission with a huge reach,” said Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy, director of Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute and a member of the TESS science team.

The exoplanet is more massive than our own blue planet, and Kaltenegger said the discovery will provide insight into Earth’s heavyweight planetary cousins...