
NASA spacecraft begins search for new planets
NASA's Tess spacecraft has blasted off from Earth in a search for new planets that could support life.Tess lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday evening local time, riding a SpaceX Falcon rocket.The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will spend two years scouring 85% of the sky and hundreds of thousands of its brightest stars.The satellite, about the size of a washing machine, will scan the stars for signs of periodic dimming, which may mean that planets are orbiting around them.It is hoped that Tess will find around 20,000 exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - with more than 50 expected to be Earth-sized.There are already 3,700 exoplanets that we know of, with another 4,500 on the not-yet-verified list.Tess is looking for the ones that are Earth-like and clos...