NASA’s latest planet-hunting probe completes lunar flyby
NASA's latest planet-hunting satellite has successfully completed a lunar flyby, passing about 8,000 kilometres from the Moon, and beamed back a test image revealing more than 200 thousand stars. The flyby provided a gravity assist that helped the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) sail toward its final working orbit.
As part of camera commissioning, the science team snapped a two-second test exposure using one of the four TESS cameras. The image, centred on the southern constellation Centaurus, reveals more than 200,000 stars.
Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 18, TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
NASA's latest planet-hunting satellite has successfully completed a lunar flyby, passing about 8,000 kilometres from the Moon, and beamed back a test image revealing more than 200 thousand stars. The flyby provided a gravity assist that helped the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) sail toward its final working orbit.
As part of camera commissioning, the science team snapped a two-second test exposure using one of the four TESS cameras. The image, centred on the southern constellation Centaurus, reveals more than 200,000 stars.
Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 18, TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
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