1 00:00:01,060 --> 00:00:05,040 [Music throughout] 2 00:00:05,060 --> 00:00:09,040 TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, has 3 00:00:09,060 --> 00:00:13,040 completed its survey of the southern sky. To do this, 4 00:00:13,060 --> 00:00:17,040 TESS divided the southern sky into 13 sectors, and its 5 00:00:17,060 --> 00:00:21,040 four cameras monitored each sector for nearly a month. 6 00:00:21,060 --> 00:00:25,040 TESS was watching for the slight dips in starlight as distant planets passed 7 00:00:25,060 --> 00:00:29,040 in front of their host stars, but it also caught other transient events 8 00:00:29,060 --> 00:00:33,040 like comets and supernovae, in addition to building a beautiful 9 00:00:33,060 --> 00:00:36,980 panoramic picture of the sky. The bright band on the 10 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:41,040 left is the Milky Way, our home galaxy viewed edge-on. 11 00:00:41,060 --> 00:00:45,040 Zooming into the mosaic, it’s clear how much detail 12 00:00:45,060 --> 00:00:49,040 and how many stars TESS has captured. At the center is 13 00:00:49,060 --> 00:00:53,040 the continuous viewing zone, where the view of one TESS camera overlaps 14 00:00:53,060 --> 00:00:57,040 all 13 sectors. Within it 15 00:00:57,060 --> 00:01:01,040 is the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to our own. 16 00:01:01,060 --> 00:01:05,040 A little farther out is the more distant 17 00:01:05,060 --> 00:01:09,040 Small Magellanic Cloud, flanked by a ball of stars, the bright globular 18 00:01:09,060 --> 00:01:13,040 cluster NGC 104. 19 00:01:13,060 --> 00:01:17,040 Silhouetted by the band of the 20 00:01:17,060 --> 00:01:21,040 Milky Way is the Coalsack Nebula, an obscuring cloud of dust in 21 00:01:21,060 --> 00:01:24,980 the constellation Crux, also known as the Southern Cross. 22 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,040 The mosaic also contains many notable stars 23 00:01:29,060 --> 00:01:32,980 such as Alpha Centauri, one of our closest neighboring systems 24 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,040 and among the brightest stars in the sky … 25 00:01:37,060 --> 00:01:40,980 Fomalhaut, which hosts one of the first directly imaged 26 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,980 planets … Sirius, 27 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,040 the brightest star in the night sky … and Betelgeuse, 28 00:01:49,060 --> 00:01:53,040 a red super-giant star that marks one shoulder of the constellation Orion. 29 00:01:53,060 --> 00:01:57,040 The Orion Nebula, 30 00:01:57,060 --> 00:02:01,040 a vast nursery where stars are born, was imaged in great 31 00:02:01,060 --> 00:02:05,040 detail by the Hubble Space Telescope. 32 00:02:05,060 --> 00:02:08,980 This isn’t a cosmic 33 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,040 object at all. It’s actually a reflection of Rigel, 34 00:02:13,060 --> 00:02:16,980 the bright star marking one of Orion’s feet, and it’s caused by 35 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,040 light scattering off part of the camera system. 36 00:02:21,060 --> 00:02:25,040 TESS’s confirmed exoplanet 37 00:02:25,060 --> 00:02:29,040 discoveries are currently distributed all around the southern sky. 38 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:33,040 Many of these discoveries are actually multiplanet systems, and several 39 00:02:33,060 --> 00:02:36,980 are Earth-size. 40 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,980 Many more candidate exoplanets await confirmation. 41 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,040 It’s easy to see which sectors were among the first, 42 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:49,040 because astronomers have had more time to study and find potential transits. 43 00:02:49,060 --> 00:02:53,040 Eventually, candidate and confirmed planets 44 00:02:53,060 --> 00:02:57,040 will be distributed more evenly around the sky. 45 00:02:57,060 --> 00:03:01,040 TESS has now turned around and is observing the northern sky 46 00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:04,980 using the same strategy. As it does, 47 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,040 astronomers will continue to sift through roughly 20 terabytes of data from the southern hemisphere, 48 00:03:09,060 --> 00:03:13,040 as well as the new incoming information. 49 00:03:13,060 --> 00:03:17,040 Eventually, hundreds or even thousands of distant 50 00:03:17,060 --> 00:03:21,040 worlds will owe their discovery to TESS. 51 00:03:21,060 --> 00:03:25,040 [Explore: Solar system & beyond] 52 00:03:25,060 --> 00:03:29,900 [NASA]