WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:01.060 --> 00:00:05.040
[Music throughout]

2
00:00:05.060 --> 00:00:09.040
TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, has

3
00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:13.040
completed its survey of the southern sky. To do this,

4
00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:17.040
TESS divided the southern sky into 13 sectors, and its

5
00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:21.040
four cameras monitored each sector for nearly a month.

6
00:00:21.060 --> 00:00:25.040
TESS was watching for the slight dips in starlight as distant planets passed

7
00:00:25.060 --> 00:00:29.040
in front of their host stars, but it also caught other transient events

8
00:00:29.060 --> 00:00:33.040
like comets and supernovae, in addition to building a beautiful

9
00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:36.980
panoramic picture of the sky. The bright band on the

10
00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.040
left is the Milky Way, our home galaxy viewed edge-on.

11
00:00:41.060 --> 00:00:45.040
Zooming into the mosaic, it’s clear how much detail

12
00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:49.040
and how many stars TESS has captured. At the center is

13
00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:53.040
the continuous viewing zone, where the view of one TESS camera overlaps

14
00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:57.040
all 13 sectors. Within it

15
00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:01.040
is the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to our own.

16
00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:05.040
A little farther out is the more distant

17
00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:09.040
Small Magellanic Cloud, flanked by a ball of stars, the bright globular

18
00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:13.040
cluster NGC 104.

19
00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:17.040
Silhouetted by the band of the

20
00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:21.040
Milky Way is the Coalsack Nebula, an obscuring cloud of dust in

21
00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:24.980
the constellation Crux, also known as the Southern Cross.

22
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.040
The mosaic also contains many notable stars

23
00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:32.980
such as Alpha Centauri, one of our closest neighboring systems

24
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.040
and among the brightest stars in the sky …

25
00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.980
Fomalhaut, which hosts one of the first directly imaged

26
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.980
planets … Sirius,

27
00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.040
the brightest star in the night sky … and Betelgeuse,

28
00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:53.040
a red super-giant star that marks one shoulder of the constellation Orion.

29
00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:57.040
The Orion Nebula,

30
00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:01.040
a vast nursery where stars are born, was imaged in great

31
00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:05.040
detail by the Hubble Space Telescope.

32
00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:08.980
This isn’t a cosmic

33
00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.040
object at all. It’s actually a reflection of Rigel,

34
00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:16.980
the bright star marking one of Orion’s feet, and it’s caused by

35
00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.040
light scattering off part of the camera system.

36
00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:25.040
TESS’s confirmed exoplanet

37
00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:29.040
discoveries are currently distributed all around the southern sky.

38
00:02:29.060 --> 00:02:33.040
Many of these discoveries are actually multiplanet systems, and several

39
00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:36.980
are Earth-size.

40
00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.980
Many more candidate exoplanets await confirmation.

41
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.040
It’s easy to see which sectors were among the first,

42
00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:49.040
because astronomers have had more time to study and find potential transits.

43
00:02:49.060 --> 00:02:53.040
Eventually, candidate and confirmed planets

44
00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:57.040
will be distributed more evenly around the sky.

45
00:02:57.060 --> 00:03:01.040
TESS has now turned around and is observing the northern sky

46
00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:04.980
using the same strategy. As it does,

47
00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.040
astronomers will continue to sift through roughly 20 terabytes of data from the southern hemisphere,

48
00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:13.040
as well as the new incoming information.

49
00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:17.040
Eventually, hundreds or even thousands of distant

50
00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:21.040
worlds will owe their discovery to TESS.

51
00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:25.040
[Explore: Solar system & beyond]

52
00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:29.900
[NASA]