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What are the functions of NASA's new probe

What are the functions of NASA's new probe

4hw.com.cn: Recently, NASA launched a new probe, which will embark on a journey to explore the universe. We hope that this probe can help people discover the "second earth". Let's see what new functions this new probe has.

NASA is scheduled to launch a probe satellite on the night of 16th local time to search for exoplanets in the solar system, hoping to find another earth that may be breeding life.

The satellite, known as the "transit extrasolar planet exploration satellite", is scheduled to be launched from the air force base at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 18:32 on the 16th (6:32 on the 17th Beijing time) by the US space exploration technology company Falcon 9 rocket.

"Tess" is 1.5 meters high. When the solar wing, or solar sail, is folded up, it is about 1.3 meters in diameter and weighs 363 kg. It is smaller than most space exploration satellites. According to NASA, it is between a refrigerator and a 'washing and drying machine'.

Tess's main mission is to 'scan' more than 200000 'nearest and brightest stars outside our solar system in the next two years to see if there are planets orbiting them. NASA expects to find 20000 exoplanets, more than 50 of which are 'earth size' and up to 500 are 'less than twice the size of earth'.

"We may even find planets orbiting stars that are visible to the naked eye," NASA scientist Eliza Middleton quintana, who participated in the Tess project, said at a press conference on the 15th. Maybe, in two years, we can go outdoors and point to a star in the sky, knowing that there is a planet around it. '

Paul middot Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA, said that in 25 years, thousands of planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, "we believe that all stars in the galaxy must have their own planetary families.".

'Tess' uses the' transit method 'to detect extrasolar planets. The principle is that when a planet becomes more and more outdated from the front of the star, the phenomenon of' darkening 'of the star can be observed. Tess will take over from the depleted predecessor, NASA's Kepler space telescope launched in 2009, which has so far discovered 2300 confirmed 'candidate' planets.

Tess is equipped with four advanced wide-angle lenses. The space area observed is 350 times larger than Kepler, and the stars observed are 30 to 100 times brighter than Kepler on average.

NASA is scheduled to launch two other space telescopes in 2020 to continue its search for 'habitable planets'.