NASA’s Kepler telescope discovered 1,284 new planets outside our solar system. They’re called exoplanets and the total count is now more than 3,000 confirmed planets.

The hunt is on for what we call ‘Goldilocks’ planets. Planets that aren’t too hot, not too cold and just right for pooling water. Get it, like the three bear?

Kepler is leading the charge finding and confirming these planets, and along with ground-based systems we think we’ve discovered about 3 dozen. Kepler is just one step in the search for exoplanets.

The telescope is only looking at a tiny fraction of the sky. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — or TESS for short — is the next chapter in the search for other planets. To talk more about TESS and the hunt for new planets, Scientist Stephen Reinhart joined the program from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.