The Kepler Space Telescope was retired in 2018, after discovering 2,600 confirmed exoplanets. But now there are three more to add to the mission's total,
The Kepler Space Telescope was retired in 2018 after a nine-year mission that saw it discover an incredible 2,600 confirmed exoplanets, kicking off the modern era of exoplanet research. But now there are three more exoplanets to add to the mission’s total, even after the telescope has been dark for the last five years. Astronomers were recently able to use data from the very last observations of Kepler to discover three more planets.
The planets themselves might not be the most exciting of discoveries, according to the researchers, but what is special about them is the way that they were discovered. Recommended Videos The observations were made during the telescope’s last weeks of observations before it was retired on October 30, 2018. As the spacecraft ran out of fuel, it could no longer point in the correct direction and its data became blurry. But the researchers were able to use the last good data to find transits — when the light from a star drops slightly due to a planet passing in front of it.
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