NASA's TESS 'unearths' the first Earth-size planet

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has stumbled upon two major discoveries of the Universe. One is a first Earth-size planet called TOI 700 d orbiting in the host star’s habitable zone and the other is the first circumbinary planet, that orbits two stars. The finds were confirmed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Both revelations were discussed during the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu.

Crux of the Matter

1. By astronomical naming conventions, TOI 700 d is the fourth most distant planet from its star. The letters b and c are the planets closer to the star.It is about 100 light years away from Earth and orbits TOI 700, a M-dwarf (red dwarf) star in the constellation Dorado.

2. Planets are searched by monitoring large swaths of the sky for 27 days at a time.The drop in starlight is detected when an exoplanet passes between us and the star. Each time a planet passes in front of its star it’s called a transit. In this case, TESS caught the three planets in the TOI 700 system transiting multiple times.

3. In order to solidify the findings, a team of scientists led by Joseph Rodriguez, from the Center for Astrophysics – Harvard & Smithsonian, requested a follow-up and confirmed the observations subsequently with Spitzer.

4. This is a key discovery for TESS, since it was designed to ferret out Earth-size planets in other solar systems and to allow other telescopes to do follow-up observations.It is expected to observe hundreds of thousands of eclipsing binaries over the course of its two-year mission.

5. Emily Gilbert, one of the researchers at the University of Chicago, was quoted as saying “When we corrected the star’s parameters, the sizes of its planets dropped, and we realized the outermost one was about the size of Earth and in the habitable zone.”

Curiopedia

NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation, encouraging peaceful applications in space science.Since then, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. It is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for no crew NASA launches. NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System. More Info

Curated Coverage

1. Scientific American – NASA’s Tess Planet Hunter finds its first earth size world in habitable zone

2. Universe Today – TESS Finds its First Earth-Sized World in the Habitable Zone of a Star

3. Astronomy Now – TESS finds its first Earth-size planet in host sun’s habitable zone

#NASA #Planet #Star #TESS