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Narrator: TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite,

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is NASA’s newest planet hunter. The mission has operated for

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a year, mapping most of the southern sky and is now surveying the northern sky.

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With mountains of data to analyze, scientists have just scratched the

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surface of what they can learn using TESS. Here are some

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noteworthy discoveries from TESS’s first year.
[TEXT: TESS’s first year of science]

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In September, the TESS team released the first of 26 planned sector

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images. [TEXT: TESS shares first science image] Each sector is a 24-by-96-degree strip

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of sky, monitored by TESS’s four cameras.

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[TEXT:TESS rounds up its first planets] By the end of 2018, TESS began delivering on its promise to discover

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new worlds around nearby bright stars when astronomers announced the mission’s

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first new exoplanets. In April 2019,

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one year after launch, astronomers announced the discovery of

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TESS’s first Earth-size exoplanet. [TEXT: TESS’s first Earth-size planet HD 21749 c]

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Orbiting a relatively nearby star, this world is likely too hot to support life,

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but it proved that TESS could find small planets that orbit very

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close to their stars. TESS has now found several

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multiplanet systems, where small planets orbit nearby stars, just

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as it was designed to do. [TEXT: Many multiplanet systems] Many are not in the habitable zone,

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like the planets in the L 98-59 system, but

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all are teaching us more about the wide range of planets out there.

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Even before starting its hunt for exoplanets, TESS was making

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observations to test its cameras. [TEXT: TESS watches Comet C/2018 N1] In late July 2018,

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TESS imaged a passing comet, along with many asteroids in our solar

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system, visible here as moving white dots.

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Later in the year, TESS went from seeing comets orbiting our Sun 

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to comets other stars. [TEXT: Exocomets in Beta Pictoris system] Its cameras spotted fluctuations

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in light from the star Beta Pictoris that are now recognized as the

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signatures of three comets passing in front of the star. They join

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planets already discovered in this young, nearby system.

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[TEXT: TESS snares far-flung supernovae] Although designed to look for exoplanets, TESS also spots many supernovae,

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bright explosions that mark the deaths of stars. Its cameras

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can catch these outbursts from their very start, even before ground-based

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surveys identify them. After just

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one year, TESS has already expanded our understanding of 

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new worlds close to home, and exploding stars beyond our galaxy.

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[TEXT: Explore: Solar System and Beyond]

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NASA