Where is kepler right now

It was packed with cutting-edge technology, including the largest digital camera for outer space observations at the time and the latest techniques for measuring stellar brightness. A replacement: Several exoplanet-hunting missions are in the works, including the James Webb Space Telescope, now due to launch in after a series of delays.

It has already identified two potential planets. Health Energy Environment. YouTube Instagram Adobe. Kickstarter Tumblr Art Club.

Film TV Games. Fortnite Game of Thrones Books. Comics Music. Filed under: Science Space. The Kepler Space Telescope is dead. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Image: NASA. Next Up In Science. Sign up for the newsletter Verge Deals Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week. Just one more thing! Managers devised a new way of using Kepler with only two operating reaction wheels, and the mission is currently in an extended phase known as K2. Scientists have confirmed the discovery of 2, planets around other stars using Kepler data, and there are more than 2, planet candidates detected by Kepler that require follow-up observations.

Kepler launched with 12 kilograms, or a little over 3 gallons, of hydrazine fuel, but it does not carry a fuel gauge. It is designed to look for planets around bright, nearby stars, while Kepler sought more distant exoplanets. Kepler will not go out in a dramatic blaze of glory like NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft , which was intentionally deorbited into the ringed planet's thick atmosphere in September when its fuel gauge began scraping "E.

Rather, Kepler team members will beam a single, simple command to the sun-orbiting planet hunter, triggering a decommissioning sequence that's already aboard the spacecraft. Kepler will shut down its radio transmitter and onboard fault-protection systems, becoming an inert chunk of metal that floats, silent and unresponding, through the cold, dark depths of space.

There will be some jostling over the decades. By , for example, the faster-orbiting Earth will have almost caught up with Kepler, NASA officials explained in a new video. Our planet's gravity will then nudge the space telescope toward the sun a bit, and Kepler will move ahead of Earth on a slightly shorter, faster orbit. But in , Kepler will pop back onto its old path after another encounter with Earth.