Lift Off of TESS It is the next step in the search for planets outside of the solar system and orbiting other nearby, bright stars. The mission is designed to find these planets, also known as "exoplanets," orbiting other nearby, bright stars periodically blocking their light while the planets transition across the astronomical object.

Far across the solar system, where Earth appears merely as a pale blue dot, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft spent eight years orbiting Jupiter. During that time, the mission made a host of discoveries on the gas giant’s moons, including the observation of a magnetic environment around...See more