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  • The results are in, my friendsNASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

  • has identified over 850 candidate exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, some

  • of which have the potential to support life. TESS, that hardworking gal, has been on this

  • exoplanet-hunting mission for over a yearAnd not only has this satellite exceeded the wildest

  • dreams of the many scientists who use it to find exoplanets, but it has also gathered

  • unprecedented data on other astrophysical phenomenalike exocomets and supernovae.

  • TESS uses four large, specially designed cameras that are able to scan the sky for stars outside

  • our solar system. The cameras view overlapping sectors of the sky for 27 days at a time,

  • waiting to see the brightness from a star blip in a certain way, an event called a transit.

  • This indicates that something has passed in front of the star, likely something that’s

  • orbiting it...like a planet. This method is called transit photometry, giving TESS the

  • first part of its name. And TESS double checks her work, too.

  • That same object must pass by the same star, causing the same blip, at least three times

  • before being considered a candidate exoplanetOnce potential exoplanets are identified, TESS then

  • notifies astronomers on the ground to take a closer look with their telescopes to confirm.

  • TESS has already helped identify at least 28 confirmed new exoplanets, with more being confirmed

  • every day.

  • Scientists are looking at these planets to see if any of them could potentially host

  • alien life, but that’s not even the only reason were interested in exoplanets.

  • Some of them are what scientists are callingmissing linkplanets.

  • These are somewhere in between smaller, rocky planets, like our Earth and larger, gaseous

  • planets like NeptuneWe don’t have any of these in-betweener

  • planets in our solar system, so thesemissing linkswill be really exciting to study,

  • since theyll help us understand how these kinds of planets form along-side rockier,

  • more Earth-like worlds, and how these solar systems evolve in the first place.

  • TESS has pointed us to several solar systems that look really promising, including three

  • planets of particular interest that orbit a relatively quiet star that’s relatively

  • close to usWhen I sayquiet’, I don’t mean that

  • it’s not blasting heavy death metal, I mean that this star doesn't flare very often, which

  • makes it and the planets that move around it easier to study.  And when I sayclose’,

  • it is 73 light-years away, which sounds like quite a ways, but is actually considered a

  • close neighbor of oursThe star in question is a red dwarf star called

  • TESS object of interest 270’, or TOI 270 for short. It’s got at least three planets

  • orbiting it, and those are the ones were looking at closely: TOI 270 B, C, and D.

  • Theyre all varying distances from the star, with estimated temperatures ranging from a

  • toasty 254 degrees Celsius to a nice and cool 66 degrees.

  • One of the larger, gassier planets is identified as a mini-Neptuneone of these missing link

  • planetsIt was initially thought to be in thehabitable

  • zoneof its star, meaning it could have liquid oceans and host life.

  • But as scientists looked at it more closely, they now think that TOI-270 D’s atmosphere

  • is too thick, making the planet a greenhouse that’s probably far too hot to host life.

  • So that’s a bummer, but researchers still want to probe the compositions and characteristics

  • of the planets orbiting TOI-270.  Plus they think there may be other planets

  • in this system, so were not giving up. TOI-270 is just one of many systems that TESS

  • has pointed us towardAnd while looking for star-planet systems

  • like these, TESS was also able to observe other exciting things outside our solar system,

  • like exocomets And because TESS looks at one particular patch

  • of sky for so longit can also observe stellar events, like the beginnings of supernovae.

  • Again, this means TESS can then tell ground telescopes to take a closer look, which researchers

  • hope will help us better understand the origins of astronomical explosions of all different

  • kindsAnd get thisscientists can use those observations to calculate how fast the

  • universe is expanding. Hopefully well be able to get even closer

  • looks at all the stuff that TESS has scouted out for us when the James Webb Space Telescope

  • eventually launchesThe JWST could even take measurements of the

  • compositions of these exciting planets and their atmospheres, telling us even more about

  • whether these exoplanets could support life. Thanks for the recon mission, TESS. We can’t

  • wait to see what else you point out for us. If you want to see just how close we are to

  • launching the JWST, check out this video here, and make sure you subscribe to Seeker for

  • all your planetary discovery news. If you have other planet questions for us, leave

  • them down in the comments below and as always, thanks for watching.

The results are in, my friendsNASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

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