What Innovation Awaits Us?
The next-gen space telescopes are already gearing up for innovative discoveries. The first in line is the launch of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). TESS claims to get a full-sky survey of the stars and their transiting planets. Kepler will be assisting TESS by handing over the “torch of discovery.” TESS is designed to get a closer and broader look at the exoplanets and discover more of them. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope which is scheduled to launch in 2020, TESS will be shedding light on the undiscovered exoplanets in space.
Webb Telescope will deploy a giant, light-collecting mirror that will be capturing all the light coming from the planets directly. The light will be then split into a multi-colored spectrum, displaying the gases existing in the planet’s atmosphere. Webb’s targets majorly include the Super earth and planets more substantial than the Earth and smaller than Neptune. Its main motive is to find rocky planets just like Earth, where life can be sustained. If humans are lucky, Webb may see signs of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane in the atmosphere of these planets. We would probably have to wait a little longer to get acquainted with planets having Earth-like atmospheres.