Thursday, January 14, 2010

MIT Satellite Could Trounce Kepler Telescope, Finding Thousands Of Exoplanets In Just Two Years

MIT's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) MIT

From Popular Science:

The Kepler Space Telescope made headlines last week when it was announced that the planet-hunting instrument has already found its first five exoplanets. Researchers at MIT, however, think they can do better. A satellite proposed by a team of researchers there could scan a piece of sky 400 times larger than Kepler, observing 2.5 million of the closest stars and discovering hundreds of small exoplanets, several of which may be suitable for life. That is, if NASA decides to build it.

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