TESS space telescope has discovered 2241 possible exoplanets

Observations from the TESS space telescope, launched in 2018, have yielded a catalog of 2241 exoplanet candidates. It is aggregate evidence for 2241 candidate planets orbiting nearby stars.

Scientists must now confirm whether the discoveries are actually newly discovered planets outside our solar system, but it is likely to lead to a “possible explosion” in the number of known exoplanets, NASA writes. To date, there has been confirmation that 120 candidates are actually exoplanets. A paper has been published about these 2,241 candidates discovered during TESS’s past primary two-year mission.

The candidates were discovered using a method in which the telescope’s sensors can detect a very small decrease in the brightness of a star. It sometimes involves a small dip in brightness of 0.1 percent or less. Such a small decrease in brightness can be caused when an object such as an exoplanet passes in front of the star.

Possible successors to TESS can further investigate the candidates, for example whether the atmospheres of the possible planets contain water, oxygen or other molecules, so that the planet is potentially suitable for life. These include the James Webb telescope, which is due to be launched in October this year, or ESA’s Ariel telescope, which is due to go into space in 2029.

TESS was launched in April 2018 and is the successor to the Kepler space telescope. Compared to its predecessor, TESS is able to map a much larger area of ​​the sky with its four wide-angle cameras. Kepler focused on a relatively limited area of ​​space, containing about 150,000 stars. TESS focuses on stars that are relatively close, at a maximum of three hundred light-years from Earth. The primary mission is over, but the current extended mission will continue until September 2022.