NASA's TESS releases most detailed sky map revealing 6,000 exoplanets
NASA's TESS satellite has dropped its most detailed night sky map yet, revealing 6,000 potential and confirmed exoplanets.
Announced on May 21, this milestone comes from years of scanning the stars since 2018.
TESS spots these distant worlds by catching tiny dips in starlight as planets pass in front of their suns.
Map shows 700 confirmed, thousands candidates
The map covers 96 slices of the sky and highlights both confirmed (around 700) and thousands of candidate exoplanets: think blue and orange dots scattered across space.
Some are in "habitable zones," others are volcanic or even getting eaten by their stars.
In just this year, TESS found a super-Earth system with a wild orbiting neighbor and caught evidence of two planets smashing together!
TESS tracks young stars and asteroids
TESS isn't just about finding planets: it's also helping scientists learn about rivers of young stars, asteroid activity, and how our galaxy behaves.
NASA says there's still a ton to discover as they keep digging into all this data.