For the past six years, our TESS mission has been staring at the sky for long periods, hunting for possible planets outside our solar system. Since TESS catches changes in its view, it can also help us find and study other dynamic sources — here are a few of our favorites! 🧵
April is
#CitSciMonth
and there are lots of ways to join in. Of course, we're partial to the programs where you can discover worlds, but you do you and
@DoNASAScience
!
Jump in and learn with the science teams of three NASA projects during the 12-Hour
#OneMillionActsOfScience
online Palooza, 7-10 pm ET, today! Register:
#CitSciMonth
Of 5,609 confirmed exoplanets, just 200 are thought to be terrestrial – rocky worlds like Earth and Mars. Fewer still are in their stars' habitable zones. That doesn't mean they're inhabited, of course, but we're looking!
In a cosmic ballroom 1,900 light-years away, six stars are dancing in pairs across space. All three pairs are entwined, and all six stars go through eclipses to our view.
Pretty in purple 💜
Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud circles the Milky Way in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. Vast clouds of gas slowly collapse to form new stars.
It's an honor just to be nominated (but...vote for us 😉)
NASA is up for 13
#Webbys
, including social media and broadcast coverage of two planetary missions -
#OSIRISREx
and
@EuropaClipper
!
Here's how to vote for your favorite NASA internet moments:
A super-Earth in the habitable zone
1,400 light-years away, Earth has a bigger, older cousin. Kepler-452 b orbits a Sun-like star in 385 days and has a temperature similar to Earth's.
In a cosmic ballroom 1,900 light-years away, six stars are dancing in pairs across space. All three pairs are entwined, and all six stars go through eclipses to our view.
A super-Earth in the habitable zone
1,400 light-years away, Earth has a bigger, older cousin. Kepler-452 b orbits a Sun-like star in 385 days and has a temperature similar to Earth's.
Pretty in purple 💜
Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud circles the Milky Way in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. Vast clouds of gas slowly collapse to form new stars.
Earth hasn't always been a pale blue dot. It's also been a lava-covered rock, a tropical riot of earth-shaking dinosaurs, and an Ice Age expanse where cave-dwelling humans hunted mammoths. If we're looking for another Earth, which one?
Our Sun may not look a day over 4.5 billion years old, but it's hard to date stars much farther away. Our next-gen
@NASARoman
will be able to help determine the ages of hundreds of thousands of stars at the center of our galaxy! 🤩