NASA’s Kepler Telescope Has ‘Awakened’ to New Observation Mission

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NASA has brought the Kepler space telescope out of sleep mode. The spacecraft started a new observation mission a few days ago, even though it is unclear how much fuel is left.

NASA reports that on August 29, Kepler’s nineteenth observation campaign began. To do this, the spacecraft has been brought out of sleep mode. At that moment it turned out that one of the thrusters was exhibiting ‘strange behaviour’, after which the configuration of the telescope was adjusted. According to NASA, it seems that the telescope can focus slightly less well. It is also unknown how much fuel is left.

It was unclear for some time whether a nineteenth observation mission was still possible, partly due to a possible lack of fuel. According to the original planning, that mission should have started already on August 6. A few days before the start of the mission, NASA put the telescope into a sleep mode, which it did in July. This was done to see what state the space telescope was in.

In principle, the observation missions last eighty days and to send data to Earth, fuel is needed to maneuver the antenna in the direction of the Earth. Kepler has discovered 2652 exoplanets so far.

While Kepler focuses on a relatively limited area with 150,000 stars, its unofficial successor TESS focuses on a much larger area. This new space telescope was launched in April and is already looking for exoplanets.

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