SpaceX to Launch NASA's Most Powerful Telescope for Alien Planet Discovery
Hunting down exoplanets the size of Earth.
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX rocket company will soon launch NASA‘s most powerful telescope. Officially dubbed the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the telescope may be able to track down thousands of alien planets that have never been discovered. More precisely, it will explore approximately 200,000 stars to find these exoplanets, and maybe, encounter existing life outside of Earth.
“We learned from Kepler that there are more planets than stars in our sky, and now TESS will open our eyes to the variety of planets around some of the closest stars,” Paul Hertz, the director of NASA’s astrophysics division, expressed in a press release. “TESS will cast a wider net than ever before for enigmatic worlds.”
SpaceX will use its 230-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket to carry the large telescope into orbit on April 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:32 p.m. EDT. For more information on TESS, visit NASA’s official website. Earlier today, NASA and Will Smith hosted the first-ever Instagram live from space.
