                  APOD: 2018 April 21 - TESS Launch Close Up

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 April 21
                                      [2]
                             TESS Launch Close Up
                Image Credit & Copyright [3] : John Kraus [4]

Explanation: NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite [5]  (TESS) began
its search for planets orbiting other stars by leaving planet Earth on April
18. The exoplanet hunter [6] rode to orbit [7]  on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.
The Falcon 9 [8]  is so designated for its 9 Merlin first stage engines seen
in this sound-activated camera close-up from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station. In the coming weeks, TESS will use a series of
thruster burns to boost it into a high-Earth, highly elliptical orbit. A lunar
gravity assist maneuver will allow it to reach a previously untried stable
orbit with half the orbital period of the Moon and a maximum distance from
Earth of about 373,000 kilometers (232,000 miles). From there, TESS [9] will
carry out a two year survey to search for planets around the brightest and
closest stars in the sky.

              Tomorrow's picture: meteors tonight & tomorrow [10]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [22] (MTU [23] ) & Jerry Bonnell [24]
                                  (UMCP [25] )
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                           & Michigan Tech. U. [31]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1804/FalconTessLaunchKraus.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.johnkrausphotos.com/
  [5] https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [6] https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/ABCs/index.html
  [7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmyzj-HfPSU
  [8] https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/launch.html
  [9] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/
nasa-planet-hunter-on-its-way-to-orbit
  [10] ap180422.html
  [11] ap180420.html
  [12] archivepix.html
  [13] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [14] lib/aptree.html
  [15] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [16] calendar/allyears.html
  [17] /apod.rss
  [18] lib/edlinks.html
  [19] lib/about_apod.html
  [20] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180421
  [21] ap180422.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [25] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [26] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [27] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [28] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [31] http://www.mtu.edu/
