![]() ![]() The blackened gaps in the center and along the top of the image are the result of earlier random part failures in the camera. Kepler's "first light image" of its field of stars in 2009 (left) compared to its final image from 2018 (right). Kepler was designed to monitor about 100,000 main-sequence stars over a period of three-and-a-half years. The diameter of the telescope’s mirror was 4 feet, 7 inches (1.4 meters), one of the largest mirrors beyond Earth orbit. The spacecraft was basically a single instrument- a specially designed 3-foot (1-meter) diameter aperture telescope and image sensor array- with a spacecraft built around it. Kepler detected planets by observing transits, or tiny dips in the brightness of a star that occur when a planet crosses in front of the star. ![]() 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. The spacecraft was named after the famed German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). 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 missionÄecember 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. NASA's Kepler spacecraft was launched to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. ![]()
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