New Work May Be Ahead for the Kepler Telescope
The American space agency NASA recently said it has ended efforts to return the Kepler Space Telescope to full working order. NASA scientists are instead studying all the information collected over the past four years during the life of the telescope.
The space agency launched the Kepler spacecraft in 2009. Their goal was to have Kepler find Earth-sized planets in or near a sun-like star where liquid water exists on the surface of the planet.
William Borucki is the chief investigator for the Kepler mission. He says the project has been extremely successful.
The Kepler telescope was launched in 2009.
“At the beginning of the mission, no one knew whether Earth-sized planets were abundant or rare in our galaxy. Now at the completion of the Kepler observations, we know that our galaxy is filled to the brim with planets. It’s likely that when you look up at the sky at night and see the sky covered with stars, most of the stars have planets.”
The Kepler Space Telescope discovered 135 planets and over 3,500 possible planets of different sizes and orbital distances. Most of these planets are small like the Earth. The four-year project was extended in 2012.
But it came to an end in August after engineers failed to repair two broken reaction wheels. The reaction wheels are extremely important in keeping the spaceship pointed in the right direction.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25