The NASA’s planet-hunter TESS has found 66 exoplanets or worlds beyond our solar system, as well as nearly 2100 candidates as such candidates on which the astronomers are working to confirm if they have the chances to be called as planets.
About TESS
TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite and it scanned about 75 per cent of the starry sky during its primary mission that ended on July 4, 2020. It is producing a torrent of high-quality observations providing valuable data across a wide range of science topics. It monitors 24-by-96 degree strips of the sky called sectors for about a month using its four cameras. The mission spent its first year observing 13 sectors comprising the southern sky and then spent another year imaging the northern sky. In the extended mission, this will again resume surveying the south. The extended mission will end in September 2022.
