NASA's TESS captures first image from its hunt for Earth-like planets

Washington, Sep 19: NASA's planet hunter telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has shared the first image that it captured on its initial round of data collection.

Hunting for Earth-like planets:

The US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a jaw-dropping new image captured by its newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

‘First Light Science Image' :

The image, which was snapped on August 7 over a 30 minute period, captured dozens of constellations, including Capricornus and Pictor, and both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, according to NASA's release on the photo.

Hundreds of nearby undiscovered planets:

TESS also captured the likes of NGC 104, a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands of stars that includes Beta Gruis and R Doradus. Both stars are so bright that they show up as vertical lines of white in images picked up by TESS' second and fourth cameras.

About NASA's exoplanet Hunter TESS

The image is the first TESS has provided since it officially began its scientific search for planets on July 25. It previously photographed C/2018 N1, a comet discovered by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite on June 29. TESS made its way to space on April 18 after being launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission duration is expected to last some two years.