04-18-2018, 03:51 PM
Not a Mauna Kea telescope, but the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was successfully launched today. TESS is the next generation of planet hunters that aims to discover thousands of new exoplanets orbiting stars in our Galaxy. Many in Hawaii are connected with the project and the observatories on Mauna Kea will be used to follow up TESS observations. In addition, the sensors TESS will use were built in Hawaii.
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/TESS_IfA/
"TESS will be a game-changer for our understanding of planets and the stars that they orbit." said Daniel Huber, astronomer at Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and lead of two TESS programs funded by NASA. "The sheer number of stars for which TESS will provide data - 10 to 100 times more than Kepler - is bound to yield some very exciting surprises."
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/TESS_IfA/
"TESS will be a game-changer for our understanding of planets and the stars that they orbit." said Daniel Huber, astronomer at Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and lead of two TESS programs funded by NASA. "The sheer number of stars for which TESS will provide data - 10 to 100 times more than Kepler - is bound to yield some very exciting surprises."