The volume of possible new worlds continues to expand with the work of the MIT-led NASA mission to observe the heavens for potential exoplanet candidates. Since 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) program has been monitoring stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits (the mapping of the initial two years of viewing is provided above). With the addition of new candidates from July 2020 to June 2021, the count of potential exoplanets now exceeds 5,000. Potential candidates will be studied to learn more about their characteristics. TESS’s mission goal has been to discover 50 planets of size less than 4 Earth radii with measured masses.
You can read more about some of TESS’s earlier exoplanet discoveries (shown below and here). For instance, L 98-59b is about 80 percent Earth’s size and orbits L 98-59, an M dwarf about one-third the mass of the Sun. L98-59 is about 35 light-years away.
Our Awesome Universe 