TESS: 200,000 stars | NASA Solar System Exploration

TESS: 200,000 stars | NASA Solar System Exploration

Source: NASA/MIT/TESS

Published: May 22, 2018

This test image from one of the four cameras aboard the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) captures a swath of the southern sky along the plane of our galaxy. More than 200,000 stars are visible in this image.

TESS is expected to cover more than 400 times the amount of sky shown in this image when using all four of its cameras during science operations. The image, which is centered in the constellation Centaurus, includes dark tendrils from the Coal Sack Nebula and the bright emission nebula Ced 122 (upper right).The bright star at bottom center is Beta Centauri.

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