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Kepler Telescope Has Entered Hibernation Mode to Download Data Before Its Final Mission
We're not ready to say goodbye.
MATT WILLIAMS, UNIVERSE TODAY 13 JUL 2018
The Kepler space telescope has had a relatively brief but distinguished career of service with NASA. Having launched in 2009, the space telescope has spent the past nine years observing distant stars for signs of planetary transits (i.e. the Transit Method).
In that time, it has been responsible for the detection of 2,650 confirmed exoplanets, which constitutes the majority of the more than 3,800 planets discovered so far.
Earlier this week, the Kepler team was notified that the space telescope's fuel tank is running very low. NASA responded by placing the spacecraft in hibernation in preparation for a download of its scientific data, which it collected during its latest observation campaign.
Once the data is downloaded, the team expects to start its last observation campaign using whatever fuel it has left.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/kepler-telescope-has-entered-hibernation-mode-to-download-data-before-its-final-mission
