Astronomers have discovered more than 10,000 previously unidentified candidate exoplanets by re-analyzing data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The findings, led by Joshua Roth at Princeton University, reveal planets orbiting fainter stars up to 6800 light-years away. While many candidates may prove real, experts caution about a high false positive rate.
Joshua Roth at Princeton University and his colleagues re-examined the first year of observations from NASA's TESS, launched in 2018. By combining images, they detected 11,554 candidate exoplanets, including 10,091 not found in prior searches. TESS identifies these worlds by observing dips in starlight caused by orbiting planets passing in front of their stars. So far, TESS has confirmed over 750 exoplanets, contributing to a total of more than 6000 known across all missions. Roth noted, “There have been predictions that there were thousands of planets still lurking in the TESS data. It just hadn’t been searched yet.” The new candidates extend twice as far as previous TESS searches, reaching toward the Milky Way's center. Over 90 percent are hot Jupiters—gas giants orbiting very close to their stars—while others include Neptunes and super-Earths. However, confirmation requires follow-up observations, as TESS data often includes false positives like binary stars. Roth estimates a 50 percent false positive rate, suggesting between 3000 and 5000 may be genuine planets. Jessie Christiansen, chief scientist at NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute, welcomed the haul. “I want as many exoplanets as possible so that I can start slicing and dicing things,” she said, highlighting its value for studying planet formation around different stars. Christiansen added that thousands more candidates from TESS await validation, with expectations of 12,000 to 15,000 total confirmed planets from the mission.