NASA’s Exoplanet Superheroes

NASA’s Exo­plan­et Superheroes



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A super­hero team of space tele­scopes has been work­ing tire­less­ly to dis­cov­er exo­plan­ets and unveil their secrets. Now, a new super­hero joins the team—the James Webb Space Tele­scope. What will it find?

Over the past few decades, a team of now leg­endary space tele­scopes has been on a mis­sion of explo­ration. Hub­ble, Chan­dra, Spitzer, Kepler, TESS and now, the Webb tele­scope all have pow­ers to dis­cov­er exo­plan­ets or to tell us more about them.

Many of their “super pow­ers,” of course, go far beyond detect­ing exo­plan­ets. Hub­ble can look deep into the cos­mic past, see­ing light from the ear­ly uni­verse and some of the most dis­tant stars and galax­ies ever observed. The Chan­dra X‑ray Obser­va­to­ry, like Hub­ble one of NASA’s “Great Obser­va­to­ries,” exam­ines the uni­verse in X‑rays. That has allowed it to peer into the tat­ters of explod­ed stars and the edges of our galaxy’s cen­tral, super­mas­sive black hole.

Anoth­er Great Obser­va­to­ry, the Spitzer Space Tele­scope, viewed the cos­mos in infrared light, observ­ing struc­tur­al details of disks around stars and the faint glow of dis­tant galaxies.

Kepler and TESS, mean­while, took on exo­plan­ets as their main mis­sion, both employ­ing the tran­sit method – search­ing for tiny dips in starlight as a plan­et cross­es, or “tran­sits,” the face of its star. TESS is still look­ing for new worlds!

Each tele­scope can reveal some­thing dif­fer­ent when study­ing the same plan­et. The James Webb Space Tele­scope will give us a clos­er look at exo­plan­ets, and will be able to tell us some­thing new. 

Cred­it: NASA/J­PL-Cal­tech



#NASAs #Exo­plan­et #Super­heroes