Its scientific goals included determining the abundance of these planets and the distribution of sizes and shapes of their orbits, estimating the number of planets in multiple-star systems, and determining the properties of stars that have planetary systems. Kepler was equipped to look for planets with size spans from one-half to twice the size of Earth (terrestrial planets) in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water might exist in the natural state on the surface of the planet.
![kepler telescope kepler telescope](https://im.rediff.com/news/2018/oct/31kepler1.jpg)
The spacecraft was named after the famed German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).
#Kepler telescope series#
NASA's Kepler, the 10th in a series of low-cost, low-development-time and highly focused Discovery-class science missions, was designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars in our region of the Milky Way. 30, 2018: NASA announces Kepler is out of fuel and will be retired in its current orbit In Depth: Kepler May 13, 2009: Kepler begins its operational missionĭecember 2011: NASA announces Kepler has found the first planet, Kepler-22b, in the habitable zone of a star outside our solar system It discovered more than 2,600 of these "exoplanets"-including many that are promising places for life to exist. You can see those videos here.NASA's Kepler spacecraft was launched to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It also took video of the TRAPPIST-1 system, six-planet star K2-138, and GJ 9827, showing the fluctuations in their brightness. That field-of-view wasn't the last thing Kepler saw, though. This overlap means scientists here on Earth can compare the two images to try to better understand the data. TESS started officially taking science observations in August 2018, so there was a very brief period of time in which the two telescopes were working simultaneously. The edge of the image also overlapped with observations taken by TESS, Kepler's successor. Another target was the GJ 9827 system, a nearby bright star that hosts a planet that is considered an excellent opportunity for follow up observations with other telescopes to study an atmosphere of a faraway world."įirst light (left) and last light, side by side. "It caught a glimpse of the renowned TRAPPIST-1 system with its seven rocky planets, at least three of them believed to be temperate worlds. "For this final field of view, Kepler's last observation campaign in its extended mission, the telescope was pointed in the direction of the constellation Aquarius," wrote NASA's Alison Hawkes.
#Kepler telescope full#
This means that the last full field of view Kepler saw before it closed its 'eyes' for the last time was still a rich one. You can't just nip into space to repair a telescope, so this had been anticipated with a modular array in which the failure of one sensor wouldn't knock out the whole lot of them.
![kepler telescope kepler telescope](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2018/10/31/USAT/3fdf80ea-f18a-4b4c-b95f-22ee37ed35dc-VPC_GOODBYE_KEPLER.jpg)
![kepler telescope kepler telescope](https://scitechdaily.com/images/NASA-Retires-Kepler-Space-Telescope.jpg)
You can see a picture of it below - the layout of the CCDs is the reason Kepler's images are arrayed the way they are.Īs you can see in the last light image, there are a few blank squares where the CCDs had failed over the years. Kepler's camera was made up of 42 charged coupled device ( CCD) image sensors, each with a resolution of 1,024 by 2,200 pixels. The space telescope's final image - its 'last light' - was taken on 25 September 2018. Kepler's first light image was snapped on 8 April 2009. When a telescope takes its very first astronomical image, it's called ' first light'. And it was taking observations right up until the end. The telescope ultimately lasted 9 years, 7 months and 23 days, revolutionising our understanding of exoplanets. Its mission had originally been planned for a duration 3.5 years.