NASA released TESS sky map with nearly 6,000 confirmed/candidate exoplanets
NASA released one of its clearest and most detailed sky maps yet, featuring nearly 6,000 dots representing confirmed or candidate exoplanets detected by TESS.
Each dot represents a confirmed or candidate exoplanet outside our solar system, including some in the habitable zone, where liquid water (and maybe life) could exist.
The mission reached the end of its second extended mission in September 2025 after more than seven years of observations.
TESS mapped 96 sky sectors
Since launching in 2018, TESS has been using four cameras to watch huge chunks of space, looking for tiny dips in starlight when planets pass by their stars.
Scientists pieced together data from 96 different sky sectors to build this map, one of the clearest views yet of other planetary systems.
TESS has become a major source of exoplanet discoveries.