- NASA released the most complete star-filled sky image from its TESS mission to date
- The image shows nearly 6,000 confirmed or candidate exoplanets detected by September 2025
- TESS has discovered planets ranging from Mercury-sized to larger than Jupiter over eight years
NASA has released the most complete view of the star-filled sky captured so far by its TESS mission. The newly released image fills gaps left in earlier observations and highlights thousands of worlds beyond Earth that have been discovered or identified as possible exoplanets, reported NASA.
The image contains nearly 6,000 coloured dots, each representing either a confirmed or candidate exoplanet detected by the mission as of September 2025, marking the end of TESS's second extended mission.
Rebekah Hounsell, a TESS associate project scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said that over the last eight years, TESS has become a major source of exoplanet discoveries.
She explained that the mission has helped scientists identify planets of many different sizes, ranging from small Mercury-like planets to worlds even larger than Jupiter. She also said that some of these planets are located in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface, making them important in the search for life beyond Earth.
NASA said the TESS mission studies large sections of the sky, known as sectors, for about a month at a time using four onboard cameras. During these observations, the spacecraft monitors changes in the brightness of tens of thousands of stars.
Researchers look for slight dips or variations in starlight that may indicate a planet passing in front of its host star.
Scientists created the latest all-sky mosaic using 96 sectors observed between April 2018, when TESS first began operations, and September 2025.
The newly released image offers one of the clearest and most detailed views yet of the mission's search for planets beyond the solar system.
