NASA's TESS space telescope spotted 2,200 planets

Until a few decades ago, scientists weren’t convinced if there were other planets in the Universe outside our Solar System. With the technological evolution and the development of new telescopes, it’s possible to observe other celestial bodies, but the performance of the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) of NASA is extremely impressive.

TESS is a satellite launched by NASA to collect evidence for the existence of exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System). NASA announced that it has managed so far to spot more than 2200 planets of different sizes and some of them are considered to be similar to our own planet. The most impressive fact is that TESS doesn’t actually ‘’see’’ them, but perceives their existence by studying the minimum changes to light, that is arriving from distant stars in the sensors.

Even the largest exoplanets are in long distances that can’t be seen, despite the evolution of our telescopes. Observing changes in the intensity of light arriving from distant stars, we can understand if a planet revolves around them by studying the frequency of the intensity. Also, the size of the exoplanet can be determined by the size of the change in intensity. Sometimes researchers are able to understand the circumstances on each exoplanet.

NASA has published on its official website some interesting facts about these exoplanets. For example, TOI 1338 b is the first who is revolving around two stars, while LHS 3844b is the first planet to have a day, that is lasting just 11 hours.

The number of exoplanets discovered by TESS is extremely impressive if you consider that it was put into orbit and operation only in 2018.