Astrophysics (Index)About

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

(TESS, Explorer 95)
(observatory-satellite searching for transiting exoplanets)

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA Medium-class Explorer Program (MIDEX) spacecraft on a mission to survey 2,000,000 nearby stars for transiting planets, launched in April 2018 for a 2-year primary mission. It uses four wide-angle telescopes and stores three months' data, allowing it to prioritize transmission to ground stations of promising data. Its intended target is stars brighter than +12 magnitude, including G-type stars and K-type stars, as well as nearby M dwarfs, small M-type stars. After the 2-year primary mission, extension was approved, TESS beginning additional observations in July 2020. The satellite remains usable and useful and additional extensions are likely. The TESS project began as an offshoot of the High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) gamma-ray burst series, originally called HETE-S (for Hot Exoplanet Transit Explorer-Survey), aiming to adapted HETE technology, making use of the ongoing improvements in optical CCDs to perform an all-sky survey for exoplanets.

TIC stands for TESS input catalog. TOI stands for TESS object of interest, a term for a planet candidate, i.e., the location of observations that appear to reveal a transiting planet. TFOP (for TESS Follow-up Observation Program) is an effort to investigate TESS discoveries, e.g., to confirm whether a TOI is a planet. CTOI stands for community TOI, which, with the TIC number, is used to designate such objects that were identified and shared by independent researchers rather than those of the TESS program itself. As of 1/2024, TESS has produced over 7000 candidates (TOIs) among its target stars, including at least 1300 apparently between Earth and Neptune in radius, and 415 confirmed to be planets through follow-up observation.

The terms TESS Duo and TESS-bis have been used the a concept of launching a second TESS satellite. TESS spots many transients (e.g., supernovae) as well as SSSB, and an additional TESS, taking advantage of the existing design, could offer immediate confirmation of apparent transients as well as parallax regarding solar system objects.


(telescope,reflector,spacecraft,transits,exoplanets,NASA,transients)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transiting_Exoplanet_Survey_Satellite
https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://tess.mit.edu/
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/tess/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014SPIE.9143E..20R/abstract
PrefixExample  
CTOICTOI 282502866TOI found independently
TICTIC 410451752input catalog
TOITOI 700 dobject of interest

Referenced by pages:
AU Microscopii (AU Mic)
CHEOPS
combined differential photometric precision (CDPP)
etendue (AΩ)
ExoFOP
extra-solar planet
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
heartbeat star
HEASARC
K2
LHS 3844 b
lightkurve
MAST
Planet Hunters (PH)
SPIRou
stellar designation
TESS-Keck Survey (TKS)
TOI 700 d
transient astronomy
transit method
transiting planet

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