"Kepler" space telescope has more fuel

After about nine years in space, the space telescope "Kepler" has run out as planned. The telescope was released because of this, yesterday announced the US Space Agency (NASA) during a brief press conference. "Kepler" should remain in a safe orbit around the sun. Data can no longer be sent or received.

Named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), the planet hunter was launched into space in 2009 to search for planets outside our solar system. Since then, "Kepler" has found evidence of thousands of distant planets. However, technical difficulties have appeared many times in the mission, since since 2013, "Kepler" only works in limited mode.

A successor to "Kepler" has already started: in April, the space telescope "Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey" (TESS) of the US State of Florida for planet search in the space.