Developed by MIT scientists, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) aims to discover thousands of nearby exoplanets including about 50 Earth-sized ones, reports the Press Trust of India. "We're on this scenic tour of the whole sky, and in some ways we have no idea what we will see. It's like we're making a treasure map," says Natalia Guerrero, technical associate at the Kavli Institute.
An international research team, led by postdoctoral fellow Carl Rodriguez, has found that dense star clusters could be a breeding ground for black holes, writes Elise Takahama for The Boston Globe. These star clusters “can create a new black hole that’s more massive and the new massive one can find itself another companion and potentially merge again,” Rodriguez explains.
Marcia Dunn of the Associated Press reports on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is expected to find thousands of exoplanets “around the closest, brightest stars.” “All astronomers for centuries to come are really going to focus on these objects," said senior research scientist George Ricker, who is the mission’s chief scientist. "This is really a mission for the ages.”
With NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, set to launch in less than a week, Jay Bennett of Popular Mechanics speaks with TESS Principal Investigator George Ricker of the MIT Kavli Institute. “TESS is really a finder scope,” says Ricker. “The main thing that we're going to be able to do is find a large sample from which the follow-up observations can be carried out in decades, even centuries to come.”
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launching April 16th, “could mark our first step toward discovering another planet outside of our solar system that harbors life,” writes Miriam Kramer for Mashable. "Planet finding never gets old," said Prof. Sara Seager. "I hope the public will joyfully share in discoveries."
Set to launch on April 16th, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), will be used to identify “planets that are close enough to Earth for astronomers to explore them in detail,” writes Alexandra Witze for Nature. “It’s not so much the numbers of planets that we care about, but the fact that they are orbiting nearby stars,” says Prof. Sara Seager, deputy science director for TESS.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is “the brainchild of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” hopes to “identify at least 50 rocky exoplanets—Earth-size or bigger,” that will eventually be scrutinized by a larger telescope that is launching in 2022, writes Daniel Clery for Science. “This is the finder scope,” explains research scientist and TESS principal investigator George Ricker.
Launching next month, the TESS satellite “is NASA's next mission in the search for exoplanets,”writes Ashley Strickland for CNN. “We expect TESS will discover a number of planets whose atmospheric compositions, which hold potential clues to the presence of life, could be precisely measured by future observers,” said George Ricker of the MIT Kavli Institute, who is a principal investigator on the mission.
Dennis Overbye of The New York Times speaks with Prof. Sara Seager and senior research scientist George Ricker about the future of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The mission, led and operated by MIT, is preparing to orbit Earth for two years in search of other planets.
MIT startup Ministry of Supply has developed a jacket that utilizes AI to keep its wearer warm. “The jacket…can also be voice-controlled through devices like the Amazon Echo or manually with an app,” writes Erin Black for CNBC.
This April, NASA will launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which will measure the masses of at least 50 “potentially Earth-like worlds,” writes Irene Klotz for Scientific American. “We’re finding the particular star that actually potentially hosts an exoplanet around it,” said senior research scientist George Ricker, the lead scientist on TESS.
MIT startup Ministry of Supply has launched an intelligent heated jacket that can operate manually or respond to smart assistants. As Richard Priday of Wired explains, the “optimum temperature of the garment” is calculated using sensors that detect the outside temperature as well as the user’s body movement and temperature.
Los Angeles Times writer Amina Khan examines the planets that surround dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 – highlighting that most planets near earth’s size are likely to be rocky. “It will be really fascinating when we get to dive into the atmosphere of each of these planets and see how different or similar they are," said postdoc Julien de Wit.
Gizmodo reporter Ryan Mandelbaum writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers confirms Einstein’s theory that the sun is losing mass. Mandelbaum writes that, “seven years of data, combined with observations of how the Sun uses up its hydrogen fuel, reveal that the Sun is slowly, every so slightly, loosening its grasp on Mercury.”
A study co-authored by MIT researchers shows that as the sun loses mass its gravitational pull is becoming weaker, reports Kastalia Medrano for Newsweek. “The study demonstrates how making measurements of planetary orbit changes throughout the solar system opens the possibility of future discoveries about the nature of the sun and planets,” explains Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research.