NASA TESS Reveals Epic All-Sky Map of Distant Worlds

All-sky mosaic from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission with orange dots depicting confirmed exoplanets and blue dots depicting candidate exoplanets. (Credit: NASA/MIT/TESS and Veselin Kostov (University of Maryland College Park))

You’re on a camping trip with your family and your parents tell you to turn off all the lights. But, of course, your little brother wants to shine his flashlight directly at the sky saying aliens will see it. You finally get him to shut off his flashlight, and you give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness. As they do, more and more stars begin to appear in the night sky that were initially hidden beneath the glare of your (loser) brother’s flashlight. As the stars get brighter and increase in number, you start firing off a slew of questions in your head: How far away are they? Are there planets around them? What kinds of life are on those planets?

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