![]() TESS uses four cameras to study 24-by-96-degree sectors of the sky for about one month at a time. (Kepler finds are still rolling in scientists continue to pore over the spacecraft's huge data set, which has more than 3,000 additional candidates that require further analysis.) Kepler, which was declared dead in October 2018, found about two-thirds of the 4,200 exoplanets discovered to date. This same strategy was used to great effect by TESS' predecessor, NASA's pioneering Kepler space telescope. The probe hunts for alien worlds using the " transit method," monitoring stars for tiny brightness dips caused by orbiting worlds crossing their faces. TESS launched to Earth orbit in April 2018 and began its science work three months later. "As it enters its extended mission, TESS is already a roaring success." "TESS is producing a torrent of high-quality observations providing valuable data across a wide range of science topics," Patricia Boyd, the project scientist for TESS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. TESS continues to study the heavens, however, on an extended mission that runs through September 2022. TESS (short for "Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite") wrapped up its two-year primary mission on July 4, having discovered 66 confirmed alien planets and nearly 2,100 "candidates" that scientists still need to vet, NASA officials said. NASA's exoplanet-hunting TESS space telescope is done with its primary mission, but its search for strange new worlds goes on.
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