NASA’s is getting ready to send out the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) next month. TESS’s mission is to search for exoplanets, or planets that are outside our solar system. TESS is also going to be looking for planets that could support life, NASA officials said, according to CNN. TESS will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 16, and will pick up the search as the Kepler Space Telescope runs out of fuel. Kepler has discovered more than 4,500 potential planets and confirmed exoplanets since its launch in 2009. It suffered a mechanical failure in 2013, but was able to enter a new phase of campagins to survey other areas of the sky for exoplanets, called the K2 mission. Researchers were able to learn even more about exoplanets, as well as learn about the evolution of stars and more about supernovae and black holes. Kepler will abandoned in space. TESS will use its fuel to reach orbit around the Earth, with a gravity assist from the moon. It will be on a two-year test, surveying an area 400 times larger than Kepler’s. This includes 200,000 of the brightest nearby stars.
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