The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will search 200,000 of the closest, brightest stars
In an attempt to find Earth-like worlds that could be home to alien life, NASA spacecraft TESS will tonight blast off in Florida.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has been programmed to search 200,000 of the closest, brightest stars.
Scientists expect to locate thousands of planets, including hundreds similar in size to our own, in a 300-light year range.
The spacecraft, Tess, is the size of a fridge with four wide-field digital cameras which will continuously scan the sky as it orbits the Earth on its two-year mission.
The mission's chief scientist Stephen Rinehart, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, disclosed: “TESS is opening a door for a whole new kind of study.
Professor Sara Seager, deputy director of science for TESS, also stated that: "Water vapour on a small rocky planet is an indicator of habitability, because all life as we know it needs liquid water.
"On Earth, microbes have created all sorts of chemicals.
"Oxygen is number one to look for, plus other gases like methane, nitrous oxide and maybe hydrogen sulphide."
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