The Kepler Mission was a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Named after the astronomer Johannes Kepler, the mission aimed to identify planets in the habitable zone of their stars, where conditions might be suitable for life. Launched in March 2009, the mission used the transit method to detect planets; it monitored the brightness of over 150,000 stars and looked for periodic dimming, which indicated that a planet was passing in front of a star. The primary goal of the Kepler Mission was to determine the frequency of Earth-sized and smaller planets in the habitable zone, thereby enhancing our understanding of the potential for life beyond our solar system. The mission significantly advanced the field of exoplanet research, leading to the discovery of thousands of candidate exoplanets, and contributed to the knowledge of planetary systems’ variety and formation. Kepler’s data continue to be instrumental for astronomers studying planetary systems. The mission officially ended in October 2018 after the spacecraft ran out of fuel, but its legacy remains through the ongoing analysis of its findings.
The Kepler space telescope had a monumental impact on the field of exoplanet discovery. When it experienced technical difficulties in 2013, many believed that the era of uncovering new planets…