A new NASA satellite, which will hunt for exoplanets that have the potential to harbour alien life, is on schedule to launch next week. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 16, at 6:32 pm (EDT). With the help of a gravitational assist from the Moon, the spacecraft will settle into a 13.7-day orbit around Earth. Then, there will be a 60-day commissioning phase, as engineers at NASA and MIT calibrate the instruments and monitor the satellite's trajectory and performance. Scientists at MIT and NASA will take the raw data and convert it into light curves that indicate the changing brightness of a star over time.

Source: dna April 12, 2018 07:18 UTC