The Planet Hunters: Kepler and TESS Missions Quiz

If the Kepler mission was a statistical survey, and if it focused on a fixed field of stars to monitor for transits over several years, then its goal was to calculate the frequency of Earth-sized planets in or near the habitable zone.

If Kepler looked at a single patch of sky (approx. 115 square degrees) for years, and if TESS scans nearly the entire sky in 26 different sectors, then the kepler and tess missions differ in sky coverage, with TESS being an all-sky survey.

If the Kepler telescope was pointed at a fixed region of the northern sky to ensure continuous monitoring of the same stars, then that specific region was located between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra.

If a telescope needs to take high-precision brightness measurements, and if Earth's thermal emission and light reflection can interfere, then a distant, elliptical orbit provides the thermal stability and clear view required for the tess mission explained.

If the goal is to detect tiny light changes, then sensitive CCDs are needed; if the telescope must remain perfectly still, then reaction wheels and guidance sensors are required; if the data must reach Earth, then antennas are necessary.

If Kepler aimed for a deep survey of distant stars to get a statistical census, and if TESS aims to find planets for follow-up study by telescopes like JWST, then TESS must focus on the brightest, most nearby stars in the sky.

If TESS scans the sky in sectors for approximately 27 days each, and if Kepler remained fixed on one field for its entire primary mission, then TESS does not provide the same long-term continuous monitoring for a single star.

If the transit method relies on detecting a change in the quantity of light received from a star over time, and if "photo" means light and "metery" means measurement, then the technique is photometry.

If the Earth's atmosphere causes light to distort and stars to "twinkle," and if this noise is larger than the tiny dip caused by an Earth-sized planet, then placing a telescope in space is the only way to achieve the required precision.

If Kepler used the transit method on 150,000 stars, it was able to find a wide variety of worlds, ranging from giants close to their stars to small rocky worlds and planets orbiting two stars simultaneously.

If two of Kepler's four reaction wheels failed, making it unable to point steadily, and if engineers used the pressure of sunlight to balance the craft, then this extended mission phase was called K2.

If JWST requires bright host stars to perform spectroscopy on planet atmospheres, and if TESS finds planets around the brightest nearby stars, then TESS serves as a "finder" for JWST's follow-up investigations.

If TESS divides the sky into 26 vertical strips to complete its all-sky survey, then each individual strip of the sky is referred to as a sector.

If Kepler needed to avoid the heat and light of the Earth and Moon to maintain its sensitivity, then it was placed in an orbit around the Sun that slowly drifts further behind Earth each year.

If any event other than a transit changes the number of photons recorded by the detector, then it is considered noise; stellar activity, instrument heat, cosmic rays, and foreground objects all affect the data.

If a transit is very short, and if the telescope only takes a picture every 30 minutes, then the dip might be missed; therefore, the sampling rate (cadence) must be fast enough to capture the shape of the light curve.

If an Earth-sized planet transiting a Sun-like star causes a dip of approximately 1 part in 10,000 (0.01%), and if Kepler successfully discovered Earth-sized planets, then it must have had the precision to detect that change.

If the data suggests a planet but astronomers have not yet verified the mass or the signal's origin, then they categorize the find as a TOI, or TESS Object of Interest.

If a space telescope needs to watch the same stars for years without interruption, and if the Sun appears to move along the ecliptic, then the telescope must be pointed far away from the ecliptic plane to avoid the Sun's glare.

If space provides a vacuum without atmosphere or weather, then a satellite can observe stars without stopping, achieve much higher precision, and see the tiny dips of small planets that are invisible from the ground.