NASA's new spacecraft begins its mission to explore the world

After 3 months of space launch, TESS - NASA's latest spacecraft will begin its journey to realize its special mission.

After being launched into space by SpaceX rocket in April 2018, TESS has officially been put into use since July 25. TESS's job is to search for planets that may exist around stars near Earth.

NASA TESS spacecraft.

Those are planets only a few hundred light years away from us. Due to the relatively close distance, these bodies are much brighter than stars thousands of light years from Earth.

Since the beginning of this month, the image signals obtained from TESS will be transmitted to Earth. The spacecraft uses four built-in cameras to capture planets, thus finding new planets that are still hidden.

TESS takes about 13.7 days to fly all around the Earth. Whenever the orbit is close enough, TESS will transmit all the data it collects to Earth within a 16-hour period. NASA spacecraft will regularly do this for a period of at least 2 years.

Researchers hope to understand more about alien planets through the visual signals TESS has collected. This information includes how planets are created or what exists in their atmosphere?