The Kepler telescope, launched by NASA in March 2009, was designed to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, it used the "transit method" to detect planets by observing tiny dips in a star's brightness when a planet passed in front of it. Kepler focused on a single patch of sky in the Cygnus constellation, monitoring over 150,000 stars. In 2013, a mechanical failure in its reaction wheels threatened the mission, but engineers creatively used s

#OTD 15 years ago, our Kepler telescope launched to detect planets outside our solar system. Before it retired in 2018, it helped us find thousands of new worlds … and much more! Here are a few of our favorite discoveries: Kepler’s steady gaze helped it spot the subtle dimming of a star’s light when a planet passed between us and the star. And it also helped Kepler see a supernova shockwave as it reached the surface of a star — an early moment in an unpredictable event: https://go.nasa.gov/438qR