One photograph, 200,000 stars NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is a planet hunter, one that will only become fully operational in June, but that is already providing promising results. This photo, shot on May 17, shows more than 200,000 stars, according to NASA. It also shows the edge of the Coalsack Nebula in the upper right corner. What's remarkable about this photograph is that it represents only a fraction of what the spacecraft will be able to record once it reaches its final orbit. When all four cameras on board TESS go live, they will be able to record 400 times the area pictured in this image – that's nearly the entire observable sky. TESS' mission is to find new exoplanets, and it's expected that it will discover thousands of them during its two-year life span. The four cameras form part of the long history of photographic technology sent to space to advance our search for answers. The first photo from space was taken in 1946 – it was a grainy image of our planet. In 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra took an Hasselblad 500c with him on board the Mercury Atlas mission. And today, NASA uses Nikon cameras, as the organization uses photography to promote its mission on social media. But it is with its unmanned probes and satellites that NASA has made a photographic impact on history. In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the Eagle Nebula – a photograph, since named the Pillars of Creation, that ended up on the cover of magazines and continues to this day to capture the imagination of millions of space aficionados. There are also Curiosity's thousands of photographs from the surface of Mars, including its famous selfie, which broadened our understanding of the Red Planet. And we can't forget the New Horizons spacecraft, which offered the stunning first high-resolution images of Pluto, revealing its famous heart-shaped feature. I, for one, can't wait to see what TESS captures next. - Olivier Laurent |
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