In April 2018, NASA released the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the successor to the Kepler Space Telescope that transformed the exoplanet studies field. Like its predecessor, TESS has actually been scanning almost the entire sky for five years for extrasolar worlds utilizing the Transit Method. This includes keeping an eye on countless stars for routine dips in brightness, which may show a world passing in front of the star relative to the observer. To date, TESS has actually made 243 verified discoveries, with another 4562 prospects– or TESS Objects of Interest (TOI)– waiting for confirmation.
On Monday, October 10th, fans of the TESS objective and the research it carries out got a bit of a scare as the observatory experienced a malfunction and had to be put into safe mode. 3 days later on, at around 06:30 PM EDT (03:30 PM PDT) on October 13th, NASA announced that their engineers had actually successfully powered up the instrument and brought it back online. While specialists at NASA are still investigating the reason for the malfunction, the spacecraft is now back in its fine-pointing mode and has actually resumed its second extended objective (EM2).
For reasons that are still unidentified at this time, TESS needed to be taken into safe mode following a reset of its flight computer system. This failsafe suspends science operations and puts the telescope into a stable setup till the objective group can identify the source of the problem. When in safe mode, any details that has not yet been downlinked to objective control will be securely saved aboard the area telescopes computer system for later retrieval.
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TESS will survey the sky in a series of thirteen observing sectors, each 27-days long. Credit: NASA/MIT
On October 12th, the TESS operations group reported that science data had been safely kept and that it might take several days before the telescope resumed regular operations. A day later on, they revealed that they had effectively restored power to the telescope and commenced healing procedures. As of the most recent update from NASA (Friday, October 14th), TESS has actually supposedly resumed typical science operations, and all the science data kept on board will be downlinked at the next offered opportunity.
This hiccup occurred throughout what has actually shown to be an appealing year for the TESS objective. It started with the satellite becoming part of a Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Senior Review, an independent comparative evaluation that NASA periodically carries out of its operational missions. This was the second time TESS was consisted of in a Senior Review since it launched in 2018, the previous happening in 2019. In both cases, TESS received high rankings for its many discoveries, consisting of exoplanets and other cosmic phenomena like star-shredding stellar oscillations and black holes.
In addition, TESS got in Year 5 of its exoplanet-hunting project, which will range from September 2022 to September 2023. As part of this project, the exoplanet finder will scan five more sectors in the northern hemisphere, followed by 9 more in the southern hemisphere. It will likewise supply 200-second full-frame images (FFIs) for each sector, compared to 10-minute FFIs in the first extended mission (EM1) and the 30-minute FFIs during its main mission. This will develop an extraordinary cadence of images for TESSs full field of vision and guarantees to result in numerous interesting discoveries.
Illustration of the TESS field of view. Credit: NASA/MIT
For several years 6, TESS will complete its scan of the southern hemisphere, return to the ecliptic to scan three more sectors, then study eleven more sectors in the northern hemisphere. The second objective extension (EM2) will then conclude by October 2024.
In the meantime, NASA engineers are still looking for the reason for the breakdown. Additional updates will be published on the NASA TESS objective page or the objective teams page at MIT.
Further Reading: NASA
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In April 2018, NASA released the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the successor to the Kepler Space Telescope that revolutionized the exoplanet studies field. To date, TESS has made 243 confirmed discoveries, with another 4562 candidates– or TESS Objects of Interest (TOI)– waiting for verification.
On Monday, October 10th, fans of the TESS mission and the research it conducts got a bit of a scare as the observatory had and experienced a breakdown to be put into safe mode. As of the newest update from NASA (Friday, October 14th), TESS has actually apparently resumed normal science operations, and all the science information kept on board will be downlinked at the next offered opportunity.
In both cases, TESS received high rankings for its lots of discoveries, including exoplanets and other cosmic phenomena like star-shredding black holes and outstanding oscillations.
