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Kepler in the space. NASA reviewed the current status of the Kepler Space Telescope. The agency said the observatory had started its 19th campaign and possibly its last campaign. ( W Stenzel | NASA Ames )
Kepler is ready to do his duty. The spacecraft is again awake to continue searching the stars for even more extraterrestrial planets.
NASA, on its website, reported on Kepler's situation by stating that the spacecraft was returning to observe the Milky Way. This is the 19th and possibly the last campaign of the space observatory.
Kepler is still fighting
The Kepler spacecraft was launched in March 2009 to find exoplanets similar to Earth. Until now, he has discovered more than 2,600 planets across the galaxy, 30 of which exist in habitable areas of their individual star systems.
At its peak, the $ 600 million spacecraft was able to study more than 150,000 stars at the same time to look for drops in brightness – a sign that the star was temporarily eclipsed by a passing planet.
However, after nine years of service, the spacecraft may be ready to retire. NASA announced in March that Kepler's mission would soon come to an end. After struggling and surviving many potential KOs, including mechanical failures and being swept away by cosmic rays, there is now a shortage of fuel.
The agency could not give a specific timeline because the spacecraft does not have gauge, but they expect the spaceship to close any time now.
On August 24, NASA placed Kepler in standby mode after it finished sending campaign data to Earth. The space agency evaluated the state of health of the spacecraft and found no "systemic problem" apart from a problem on one of its thrusters that engineers were able to work around by changing its configuration.
"One of the eight thrusters showed unreliable performance, but the team felt that simply removing the thruster in precision firing could lead to an acceptable performance of the system," the spokesman said. NASA Alison Hawkes. "As a result, the changes were made and the 19 campaign was, so to speak, in progress."
Hawkes added that the space agency is not sure that the problem with the thruster is related to fuel. NASA will continue to observe Kepler's health.
Earth-like hunt continues
TESS, or satellite of exoplanet survey in transit, the mission that will take over from Kepler in the hope of finding exoplanets in orbit around nearby stars, has already been launched in space. He has already started sending home pictures compiled to a video below.
TESS, like Kepler, should discover new planets similar to the Earth by observing the shooting stars.
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