NASA to Launch Planet-Hunting Probe, Neutron Star Experiment in 2017

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NASA to Launch Planet-Hunting Probe, Neutron Star Experiment in 2017

NASA has picked two new low-cost missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station experiment designed to probe the nature of exotic, super-dense neutron stars.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) are the latest missions chosen under NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program, which caps costs at $200 million for satellites and $55 million for space station experiments, officials announced Friday (April 5).

The TESS spacecraft will use an array of wide-field cameras to scan nearby stars for exoplanets, with a focus on Earth-size worlds in their stars' habitable zones — that just-right range of distances where liquid water could exist.

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http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-launch-planet-hunting-probe-neutron-star-experiment-130545625.html