Paul Hertz

In a sea of stars brimming with new worlds, TESS is casting a wide net and will haul in a bounty of promising planets for further study, this ‘first light’ science image shows the capabilities of TESS’ cameras, and shows that the mission will realize its incredible potential in our search for another Earth.

Just as we expected, there are exciting discoveries lurking in our archived Kepler data, waiting for the right tool or technology to unearth them, this finding shows that our data will be a treasure trove available to innovative researchers for years to come.

We can see water in the interstellar clouds from which planetary systems and stellar systems form. We can see water in the disks of debris that are going to become planetary systems around other stars, and we can even see comets being dissipated in other solar systems as [their] star evaporates them. i'm a field geologist; I go out and break open rocks and look for fossils.

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Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation.