The planet-hunting TESS telescope has big shoes to fill — shoes that once belonged to Kepler. Before its retirement last October, the pioneering Kepler Space Telescope spent 10 years paving the way for the search for planets (and possibly life) outside the solar system. Of the nearly 4,000 exoplanets found around other stars to date, Kepler found more than half. But now, TESS is up to bat. And it’s already off to a great start.

Over the next two years, TESS is expected to find roughly 20,