humanity has been wondering for a long
time are we alone in the universe is
there a mind in its vast expanses born
under a different sun and looking at
completely different stars in the night
sky
on april 18th 2018 the tess space
telescope was launched on a falcon 9
launch vehicle to search for exoplanets
that is planets outside the solar system
almost four years have passed since then
what was discovered during this time are
we any closer to answering one of
humanity's most burning intriguing
questions is there extraterrestrial life
are we alone in the universe
to search for extraterrestrial planets
the test telescope used the transit
method which has proven itself in the
kepler project which we'll talk about in
more detail a little later tess stands
for transiting exoplanet survey
satellite the transit method uses the
particularity that if the planet passes
between the star around which it rotates
and an outside observer then for this
observer the luminosity of this star
decreases for some time
this effect for sure was observed by
many people a solar eclipse when the
moon passes between our star and the
earth but in the case of searching for
exoplanets the task becomes thousands of
times more difficult
it's all about distance the moon is only
380 000 kilometers from the earth
therefore for us it significantly blocks
the sun and at this moment seems like a
giant damper the weakening of the
luminosity of the sun is noticeable to
the naked eye but if the distance to the
damper is increased by millions and
millions of times
then the weakening of the luminosity
will be noticed much less for example if
aliens living somewhere in the region of
alpha centauri or tau ceti were trying
to detect our earth by transit method
then they should have instruments
capable of detecting a decrease in
luminosity by
0.0008 percent
difficult task
very but humanity is already capable of
it and this was proved by the kepler
telescope launched on march the 6th 2009
it ceased its work on november the 15th
2018 and during these nine odd years it
managed to discover more than 1 000
planets by the transit method but only
two of them kepler 483b and kepler-442b
are earth-like in size and are in the
habitable zone that is conditions that
should be close to conditions on earth
and will ensure the existence of water
in the liquid phase a key condition
necessary for protein life
note that it's nine years of research
and only two potentially habitable
planets moreover kepler-483b is located
in the constellation lyra and this is
470 light-years from us
kepler-442b is located in the same place
but at a distance of 1 120 light years
very far
it's unlikely that humanity will get
there even in the distant future
and any contact with the civilization if
it exists of course on one of these
planets is very difficult to say hello
to each other it would take at least
nine centuries imagine sending a message
during the first crusade and receiving a
response when satellites are already
spinning above earth
the main task of the test telescope is
to search for planets similar to
kepler-483b
and kepler-442b but located closer if
kepler was looking for exoplanets at a
distance of up to 3000 light years then
tess was looking for no more than 200
light years
at the same time kepler was aimed at a
strictly defined narrow section of the
sky with an area of 105 square degrees
which is less than even a quarter of a
percent of the area of the entire
celestial sphere
this area holds the three constellations
of the northern hemisphere of the
celestial sphere cygnus
lyra
and draco
tess searches in an area 400 times
larger which is 85 percent of the entire
sky
the search is consistently conducted in
26 sectors the telescope is most
sensitive to exoplanets with an orbital
period of less than 13 days but is able
to find objects with a period of more
than 100 days
this pattern is understandable the
faster the planet revolves around its
star the more often it blinks and the
easier it is to notice this blinking
for this coverage the test telescope
consists of four telescopes each of
which is a wide angle refractor with a
24 by 24 degree field of view equipped
with a 16.8 megapixel camera for a total
of 67.2 megapixels for all cameras
researchers expect that tess will
discover more than 20 000 exoplanets of
which 500 to 1000 will be terrestrial
and even super terrestrial planets with
orbital periods of up to 10 months a
super terrestrial type is a planet whose
mass is greater than the mass of the
earth but less than such giants as
jupiter saturn and neptune
on january 20th 2022 astronomers from
the test space telescope team summed up
the interim results for the first three
years of its work
the number of found exoplanet candidates
amounted to 5210
of which 177 have already been confirmed
by observational data from ground-based
telescopes
a candidate for an exoplanet is an
object that has twice been observed
transiting the disk of a star in
mid-2020 the telescope completed its
main science program having scanned
about 75 percent of the celestial sphere
after which it embarked on an extended
science program that includes the
northern and southern hemispheres of the
sky the ecliptic region and areas
previously observed by the kepler
telescope
is there anything really interesting in
this abundant catch there is
first about the first discovered planet
at the end of september 2018 a group of
astronomers led by chelsea huang from
the massachusetts institute of
technology announced the first exoplanet
discovered by the telescope the newly
discovered exoplanet lies in the bright
pi star system of the table mountain
about 60 light years from earth
now about the most interesting
exoplanets found
in july 2019 it was reported that tess
discovered three planets near the red
dwarf toi 270 73 light years away from
earth and located in the constellation
dorado at a small distance from its star
it was especially noted that the star
toi 270 has a very calm temper which
increases the chances of finding life on
its planets
exoplanet toi 270b the distance to the
star is about 4.5 million kilometers
this is more than 30 times closer than
the earth is from the sun the average
surface temperature is 255 degrees
celsius the period of rotation around
the star is 3.36 days the mass is about
1.9 times that of the earth size
1.247 times the size of the earth
exoplanet toi 270c the distance to the
star is about 7.5 million kilometers the
average surface temperature is 155
degrees celsius the period of rotation
around the star is 5.66 days the mass is
about 6.6 times that of the earth size
2.42 times the size of the earth
exoplanet toi 270d the distance to the
star is about 11 million kilometers the
average surface temperature is 67
degrees celsius the period of rotation
around the star is 11.3 days the mass is
about 5.4 times that of the earth size
2.13 times the size of the earth
as you can see it's not the best
combination for the emergence of life
the planet closest to the star is toi
270b
it's a super earth its mass is only two
times that of the earth but the
temperature on the surface leaves no
chance for life the third farthest
planet toi 270d has a high but still not
fatal temperature but the mass of the
planet and hence the force of gravity on
its surface is 5.4 times higher than the
earth's a person there would weigh about
400 kilograms so if there is life there
then its representatives must be very
miniature
almost immediately it was reported about
the discovery of the star
gj357 a red dwarf which is located in
the constellation hydra just 31 light
years away from us with several planets
gj357b the distance to the star is about
5.23 million kilometers the average
surface temperature is 250 degrees
celsius the period of rotation around
the star is 3.9 days the mass is about
1.84 times that of the earth size 1.2
times the size of the earth gj 357c the
distance to the star is about 9 million
kilometers the average surface
temperature is 130 degrees celsius the
period of rotation around the star is
9.1 days the mass is about 3.4 times
that of the earth size 1.66 times the
size of the earth
tj 357d the distance to the star is
about 30.5 million kilometers the
average surface temperature is minus 57
degrees celsius the period of rotation
around the star is 55.7 days the mass is
about 6.1 times that of the earth size
1.9 times the size of the earth
at first glance given such low
temperatures it appears that gj 357d is
uninhabited but scientists do not lose
hope they believe that if there is a
dense layer of atmosphere around the
planet the presence of which should be
established in the course of future
research enough heat should linger on it
to warm the planet and to have liquid
water on its surface
and the most interesting discovery at
the moment was announced on january 7th
2020 by the press service of the nasa
goddard space flight center
the red dwarf star toi 700 in the
constellation dorado
101.4 light years away from us has three
exoplanets discovered
toi 700b the distance to the star is
about 9.5 million kilometers the average
surface temperature is 150 degrees
celsius the period of rotation around
the star is approximately 10 days the
mass is about 1.1 times that of the
earth size 1.04 times the size of the
earth toi 700c the distance to the star
is about 13.8 million kilometers the
average surface temperature is 75
degrees celsius the period of rotation
around the star is approximately 16 days
the mass is about 8 times that of the
earth size 2.64 times the size of the
earth
this planet with its temperature of 75
degrees celsius could be considered
habitable but gravity is eight times
greater than the earth's which doesn't
leave any chance
of greatest interest is the third planet
toi 700d by the way note that the earth
is also the third planet from the sun
the discovered parameters for this
exoplanet are as follows the distance to
the star is approximately 24.4 million
kilometers
the average surface temperature is minus
13 degrees celsius the period of
rotation around the star is 37.4 days
the mass is about 1.57 times that of the
earth size 1.22 times the size of the
earth the temperature is definitely
uncomfortable but in the presence of a
dense atmosphere as we said above
there's a chance that enough heat will
linger there for life
in addition over 11 months of
observations astronomers did not record
a single flash dangerous for all living
things on the surface of this star which
is typical for all other stars in which
similar worlds were found this greatly
increases the likelihood of life on its
surface
as scientists suggest due to its climate
and surface conditions toi 700d
resembles early mars more than earth its
atmosphere as shown by preliminary
analysis of the spectrum should consist
almost entirely of carbon dioxide and
the surface of this twin of the earth
receives 86 percent of the energy that
our planet receives
the main obstacle to the existence of
life on its surface according to nasa
scientists may be that this planet
always looks with the same side as the
star this can dramatically increase the
temperature on its illuminated side as
well as unpredictably affect the nature
of the movement of winds in the
atmosphere but let's be optimistic maybe
just on the border between the areas
where darkness rains all the time and
where constant day blooms life could
exist and its evolution has already
begun so that in hundreds of millions of
years intelligence will appear there
in any case it's already clearly seen
that planets with conditions for life
also exist outside the solar system and
for sure there are quite a few of them
but for now the question of whether
we're alone in the universe is still
open but maybe it's for the best after
all the probability of the scenario
described by h.g wells in the novel war
of the worlds is still there
you