NASA discovers Earth-like planets: Is life possible there

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Flipboard
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
NASA’s planet-hunting telescope TESS has discovered two new exoplanets (Representational Image)
NASA’s planet-hunting telescope TESS has discovered two new exoplanets (Representational Image)

New Delhi : NASA's planet-hunting telescope has discovered two earth-like planets beyond our solar system. The orbital telescope has been launched five months ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida and within a short time it has come up with such a big discovery. Now that the earth-like planet has been discovered, the question uproots like if life is possible out there.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, also known as TESS, made an early discovery of “super-Earth” and “hot Earth” planets in solar systems at least 49 light-years away, marking the satellite’s first discovery since its April launch. TESS is on a two-year, $337 million mission to expand astronomers’ known catalog of so-called exoplanets, worlds circling distant stars.

Experts say that the two newly discovered planets are too hot to support life. TESS Deputy Science Director Sara Seager says, “We will have to wait and see what else TESS discovers,” Seager told Reuters. “We do know that planets are out there, littering the night sky, just waiting to be found.”

Scientists have constructed TESS to build on the work of its predecessor, the Kepler space telescope, which discovered the bulk of some 3,700 exoplanets documented during the past 20 years and is running out of fuel.

Earlier, too, scientists have presented thousands more unknown worlds, perhaps hundreds of them Earth-sized or “super-Earth” sized – no larger than twice as big as our home planet. Some are most likely to feature rocky surfaces or oceans and are thus considered the best candidates for life to evolve. Scientists have said they hope TESS will ultimately help catalog at least 100 more rocky exoplanets for further study in what has become one of astronomy’s newest fields of exploration.