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  • NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

    NASA’s TESS spacecraft finds its first Earth-sized exoplanet

    by 
    Christine Fisher
    Christine Fisher
    04.16.2019

    One year after its launch, NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) discovered its first Earth-sized exoplanet. Named HD21749c, the planet orbits a star just 53 light-years from Earth and is likely rocky but uninhabitable. The findings -- published in Astrophysical Journal Letters -- suggest TESS is capable of fulfilling its mission to catalog thousands of planet candidates, including more than 300 that are expected to be Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized exoplanets.