Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
NASA all-sky transit survey launched in 2018; identifies exoplanet candidates via brightness dips, often passed to JWST or ground-based facilities for atmospheric follow-up.
Vault-relevant results
- 2023 — flagged toi-5205-b (Jupiter-sized giant around an 0.4 M☉ M dwarf); follow-up confirmation led by shubham-kanodia. Cited in src-sciencedaily-forbidden-exoplanet-atmosphere-2026-04.
- Discovery instrument for several other vault exoplanet entities including toi-1130b.
3I/ATLAS pre-discovery (May 2025)
TESS serendipitously captured 3i-atlas in May 2025 — two months before the ATLAS survey telescope’s official discovery on July 1, 2025. The pre-discovery data enabled astronomers to more precisely calculate the comet’s trajectory and orbital history. This is among the earliest available observations of any interstellar object (src-nasa-3i-atlas-open-data-2026-03).
Technosignature use
- 72 TESS targets supplied the stellar-target set for the Sardinia Radio Telescope high-frequency (6/18 GHz) technosignature survey (src-sardinia-technosignature-search-2026-05).