This machine believes in NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).

The question TESS attempts to resolve is a deep, profound, and transcendental philosophical one: Are we alone? Is there life elsewhere in the universe?

Although the TESS satellite is not tasked with studying potentially habitable planets in detail, it will conduct the necessary studies to advance this inquiry, which will be decisively resolved by other instruments in the near future. TESS surveys 85% of the sky searching for Earth-sized exoplanets with similar atmospheric compositions, as well as their distance from their host star.

This piece recalls the transit method used to discover extrasolar planets while performing a robotic ritual to its celestial deity.