This video introduces the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This is a joint mission between NASA and MIT that will scan the entire sky searching for exoplanets, or planets outside our Solar System. Using four state-of-the-art cameras, TESS will monitor over 500,000 stars, looking for changes in their brightness that signal a planet crossing over. The stars TESS looks at will be 30-100 times brighter than those observed by the Kepler satellite, making follow-up observations much easier. Using TESS data, missions like the James Webb Space Telescope can determine specific characteristics of these planets, including whether they could support life. TESS is scheduled to launch in 2017.

Credit

Goddard Space Flight Center/Massachusetts Institute of Technology