Kepler space telescope
The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.
Artist's impression of the Kepler telescope | |
| Mission type | Space telescope |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / LASP |
| COSPAR ID | 2009-011A |
| SATCAT no. | 34380 |
| Website | www |
| Mission duration | Planned: 3.5 years Final: 9 years, 7 months, 23 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Ball Aerospace & Technologies |
| Launch mass | 1,052.4 kg (2,320 lb) |
| Dry mass | 1,040.7 kg (2,294 lb) |
| Payload mass | 478 kg (1,054 lb) |
| Dimensions | 4.7 m × 2.7 m (15.4 ft × 8.9 ft) |
| Power | 1100 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | March 7, 2009, 03:49:57 UTC |
| Rocket | Delta II (7925-10L) |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-17B |
| Contractor | United Launch Alliance |
| Entered service | May 12, 2009, 09:01 UTC |
| End of mission | |
| Deactivated | November 15, 2018 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Heliocentric |
| Regime | Earth-trailing |
| Semi-major axis | 1.0133 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.036116 |
| Perihelion altitude | 0.97671 AU |
| Aphelion altitude | 1.0499 AU |
| Inclination | 0.4474 degrees |
| Period | 372.57 days |
| Argument of perihelion | 294.04 degrees |
| Mean anomaly | 311.67 degrees |
| Mean motion | 0.96626 deg/day |
| Epoch | January 1, 2018 (J2000: 2458119.5) |
| Main telescope | |
| Type | Schmidt |
| Diameter | 0.95 m (3.1 ft) |
| Collecting area | 0.708 m2 (7.62 sq ft) |
| Wavelengths | 430–890 nm |
| Transponders | |
| Bandwidth | X band up: 7.8 bit/s – 2 kbit/s X band down: 10 bit/s – 16 kbit/s Ka band down: Up to 4.3 Mbit/s |
Designed to survey a portion of Earth's region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets, Kepler's sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitored the brightness of approximately 150,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. These data were transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star. Only planets whose orbits are seen edge-on from Earth could be detected. Kepler observed 530,506 stars and detected 2,778 confirmed planets as of June 16, 2023.