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The most accomplished planet search machine of all time will no longer search for new strange worlds.
NASA decommissioned the Kepler Space Telescope last night (Nov. 15), transmitting "good evening" commands to the solar-orbit observatory.
This official ending is not a surprise. NASA announced Oct. 30 that Kepler's scientific work had been done because the spacecraft was running out of fuel. Mission team members stated that decommissioning orders would likely be sent in a few weeks. [Kepler’s 7 Greatest Exoplanet Discoveries]
"The Kepler team has disabled security modes that may inadvertently re-activate systems and cut off communications by shutting down transmitters," NASA officials said in a statement (November 16). "As the spacecraft slowly rotates, the Kepler team had to carefully time the controls so that the instructions reach the spacecraft during periods of viable communication."
Artist illustration of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, out of fuel. The members of the Kepler team transmitted to the observatory on November 15, 2018 a "Goodnight" command to the decommissioning.
Credit: NASA
The latest orders were sent from Kepler 's operations center located at the University of Colorado' s Space and Space Physics Laboratory in Boulder, NASA officials said. The orders reached the spacecraft via NASA's Deep Space Network, the satellite dish system used by the space agency to keep in touch with its distant probes.
The Kepler mission, worth $ 700 million, launched in March 2009, was to determine the degree of similarity of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy. The probe discovered extraterrestrial worlds via the "transit method", noting the tiny drops in brightness caused by the passage of planets on the face of their host star.
Kepler first did this work by looking at more than 150,000 stars simultaneously. Then, in 2013, the second of the four reaction wheels to maintain the orientation of the spacecraft failed, ending the initial mission. Kepler moved to a new mission called K2 in 2014, after team members discovered how to stabilize the observatory with the help of sun pressure.
Kepler has discovered 2,682 exoplanets to date, including 355 during the K2 phase. This grand total represents about 70% of all known extraterrestrial worlds. And other Kepler discoveries are forthcoming: nearly 2,900 "candidates" spotted during the initial mission and K2 waiting to be confirmed by observations or follow-up analyzes, and history suggests that most of these discoveries will end up being the reality.
It is impossible to refuel Kepler and bring him back to action. The spaceship revolves around the sun, not the Earth, and is currently about 151 million kilometers from our planet.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate) is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.
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