NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 •SKYNEWS 13could hold onto an atmo sphere. She and her
colleagues used the Spitzer Space Telescope
to observe the star at infrared wavelengths,
guessing that the planet’s radiated heat
would appear as an additional varying sig-
nal on top of the star’s steady glow. The at-
tempt paid off when they spotted a highly
variable heat signature as LHS 3844b pre-
sented first its dayside, then its nightside.
The large variation is consistent with no at-
mosphere—because an atmosphere would
help balance the temperature of the hemi-
spheres. “We see a huge signal, which is
exactly what you would expect from a bare
rock,” explains Kreidberg. “What makes it
exciting is having a definitive answer.”
In July, NASA extended TESS’s two-year
mission through 2022. The extension will
allow TESS’s operators to inspect stars lost
between the initial search fields. It will also
provide an opportunity to detect orbital
periods substantially greater than the 27 days
TESS spends monitoring one place. Sara
Seager is confident that her team will con-
tinue developing creative ways to get the
most out of the data and “beat the bushes”for every possible exoplanet within reach.
As TESS continues, Europe’s CHEOPS
space telescope mission is gearing up to
make precision measurements that will
better characterize the transiting planets
already found. The James Webb Space Tele -
scope, an all-purpose orbiting observatory
scheduled for launch in the spring of 2021,
is expected to take exoplanet science a giant
step further, as it focuses on promising spec-
imens for future study. Europe plans to
launch ARIEL in 2028 in a mission designed
to tease out the atmospheric chemistry of
at least 1,000 transiting worlds.
With TESS leading the charge, the com-
ing decade of high-quality data acquisition
appears set to transform our understanding
of exoplanets. “We’re building up observa-
tional capabilities that will be revolution-
ary,” enthuses Kreidberg. “I’m not a surfer,
but I’ve tried surfing, and this feels like the
moment the wave is coming.”✦Ivan Semeniuk is a science reporter for The
Globe and Mail newspaper and recipient of
the 2017 Simon Newcomb Award from The
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.RADIUS VALLEY
NASA’s Kepler mission
revealed a shortage of
planets 1.7 Earth radii in
size. TESS has found plan -
ets on either side of this
gap in the same solar
system, which may help
explain its cause. (Grey
indicates where numbers
are likely higher than
shown because small
planets are hard to spot.)
COURTESY NASA/AMES/CALTECH/
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII (B. J. FUL-
TON) GRAM: ESO/L. CALÇADANumber of planets per 100 starsSize relative to Earth (radius)1 1.5 2346812121086420KhanScooooope
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