This month Hugh, Hannah, and Andrew chat with Natalia Guerrero, who works in the office of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is run out of MIT’s Kavli Institute. Natalia is the manager of the TESS objects of interest (TOI) catalogue, part of the communications office, and was one of the engineers who did the camera testing prior to launch.

We talk about how TESS looks for planets, what are the biggest challenges, how she came into the project, and excitements to come. Natalia also talks about her role in TESS communications, and designing a science based concert and artwork for the TESS Science Conference last year.

Adopted planet: Pi Mensae c – the 1st planet published from TESS and sibling to Pi Men b. Pi Men c is a 2 earth-radius planet on a 6 day orbit around a bright naked eye star in the Southern Hemisphere.