TESS: NASA’s Planet Hunting Mission Explores Another Potentially Habitable Earth-Sized Exoplanet

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) has explored another possibly habitable exoplanet. The new planet joins a range of other such planets discovered by the agency under its planet-hunting mission called TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).

The mission was launched to monitor at least 200,000 stars in its lifespan for pinning down more of such exoplanets. The earlier discoveries were made in TRAPPIST-1 system by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The newfound exoplanet was discovered by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope with infrared capabilities.

"TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars," Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said.

The findings were declared in the 235^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Honolulu Monday.

The planet which is 20% larger than the size of Earth was said to be located about 101.5 light-years from Earth. Known as TOI 700 d, the exoplanet is part of the several planets that are orbiting TOI 700, a small M- dwarf star which is roughly 40% of Sun’s mass and size, and carries half of its surface temperature, CNN reported.

TOI 700 d is the outermost planet in the system which takes 37 days to complete one orbit. The astronomers initially believed that the exoplanet is too close to its star which would make it too hotter to support life. However, they later found the planet is located in the exactly favorable distance from the star which helps its surface liquid water to persist. Also, it receives 86% of the stellar energy that Earth receives from the Sun. All in all, TOI 700 d is deemed potentially habitable by the scientists.

They are also likely to observe the planet’s potential environment to ascertain its habitability. Furthermore, the Exoplanet is understood to be tidally locked to its hot-star and therefore its one side is always exposed to daylight.

The mission would be extended until 2022, according to NASA.