TESS: the planet hunt CONTINUES

For the last two years, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has been watching the stars, searching for new worlds. This month it completes its primary mission, having scanned 70 per cent of the sky – an area 400 times larger than that covered by its predecessor, the Kepler space telescope; but its job is far from done. As TESS moves into a two-year extension, we take a look over what the mission has already achieved and what it still could.

Like Kepler, TESS has been tracking some 200,000 stars, watching out for the tell-tale dip in brightness as a planet passes – or transits – in front of the star. “TESS’s particular niche is that it’s sensitive to red dwarf stars,” says Sara Seager, deputy