Thursday, March 15, 2018

Kepler on the way out

NASA now predicts that the Kepler space telescope - yeah, the one that's been finding all of those exoplanets - will run out of maneuvering fuel in "the next few months". At that point scientists will no longer be able to target the scope.

Thankfully, its replacement, TESS should, if all goes well, be launched next month.

Kepler has actually done better service than initially planned, even after its software crashed in a rather scary way. NASA plans on making full use of the telescope until its inevitable death. (Unfortunately, we can't just recharge it).

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