Satellite launches USQ's leading space mission role
THE search is on for planets beyond the solar system, and University of Southern Queensland researchers are at the forefront of the mission in the southern hemisphere, following the successful launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission in Florida, USA, today.
The satellite launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre today marks the start of the search for planets beyond the solar system and is expected to catalogue thousands of exoplanets.
The first year of the initial two-year survey program will target stars in the Southern hemisphere of the sky.
While TESS will identify thousands of potential planets, follow-up observations by ground-based telescopes throughout the world will be vital in confirming the existence of those planets, and allowing us to learn more about them.
This is where USQ will play an important role, as host to the only southern hemisphere site fully dedicated to this work - the MINERVA-Australis project at the University's Mount Kent Observatory.
USQ astronomers will be working closely with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute collecting and analysing ground-based observations.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Geraldine Mackenzie said it was a remarkable feat for USQ researchers to be contributing to such a significant space mission.
"USQ's involvement in TESS is a reflection of our global research focus and confirms that our astrophysics team is leading Australia's role in the discovery of potentially habitable planetary systems," she said.
USQ's project lead, Associate Professor Rob Wittenmyer, said that for the first time in human history we know nearly every star in the sky has planets around it, however don't know what these planets are like.
"MINERVA-Australis, as a fully dedicated observatory, is the key to the great unveiling that will happen in the next decade, when we will begin to truly understand our nearest celestial neighbours," he said.
USQ's work with TESS will be in conjunction with northern hemisphere partners including the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, MIT and University of Louisville.
