Solar System: Things To Explore On Your Phone This Week

What’s Up for December?

View Mars right now, and prepare for 2016, the best Mars viewing year since 2005! Last month early risers watched small, reddish Mars dance with brighter Jupiter and Venus just before sunrise. 

This month Mars rises earlier-by about 2 a.m. local time. Its reddish color is unmistakable, even without a telescope. It’s easy to see below the Moon and Jupiter on December 4. You won’t see many features this month, because the planet is almost 10 times smaller than nearby Jupiter appears and 350 times smaller than the Moon appears to us on Earth.

You should also be able to see Mars’ north polar region this month, because it’s currently tilted towards Earth. 

You’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll see during 2016. January through December are all prime Mars observing months. Between January and May next year, Mars triples in apparent diameter as its orbit around the sun brings it closer to Earth. You’ll even be able to see the areas on Mars where NASA’s Mars landers are located.

By October, Mars shrinks in apparent size to less than half its May diameter as it speeds away from Earth. Mars shrinks even further from October through December, returning to the same size we saw in January 2016 by year’s end.

So put Mars viewing on your calendar for 2016. You won’t see Mars this size again until 2018, when Mars will put on an even better show.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIKxdRFx2Wo)

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TESS: The Planet Hunter

So you’re thinking…who’s TESS? But, it’s more like: WHAT is TESS? 

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an explorer-class planet finder that is scheduled to launch in Spring of 2018. This mission will search the entire sky for exoplanets — planets outside our solar system that orbit sun-like stars.

In the first-ever space borne all-sky transit survey, TESS will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances.

The main goal of this mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood, so that we can better understand these planets and their atmospheres.

TESS will have a full time job monitoring the brightness of more than 200,000 stars during a two year mission. It will search for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. These transits occur when a planet’s orbit carries it directly in front of its parent star as viewed from Earth (cool GIF below).

TESS will provide prime targets for further, more detailed studies with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future.

What is the difference between TESS and our Kepler spacecraft?

TESS and Kepler address different questions: Kepler answers “how common are Earth-like planets?” while TESS answers “where are the nearest transiting rocky planets?”

What do we hope will come out of the TESS mission?

The main goal is to find rocky exoplanets with solid surfaces at the right distance from their stars for liquid water to be present on the surface. These could be the best candidates for follow-up observations, as they fall within the “habitable zone” and be at the right temperatures for liquid water on their surface.

TESS will use four cameras to study sections of the sky’s north and south hemispheres, looking for exoplanets. The cameras would cover about 90 percent of the sky by the end of the mission. This makes TESS an ideal follow-up to the Kepler mission, which searches for exoplanets in a fixed area of the sky. Because the TESS mission surveys the entire sky, TESS is expected to find exoplanets much closer to Earth, making them easier for further study.

Stay updated on this planet-hunting mission HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

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