The Kepler space telescope has discovered its first exoplanet since NASA's engineers were able to reboot the mission many thought lost after multiple mechanical failures.
That exoplanet, HIP 116454b, is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth, and resides 180 light years away. It has a nine-day orbit around a star smaller and cooler than our sun, but is still too hot for life found on Earth.
Launched in 2009, Kepler was responsible for detecting and mapping planets throughout the galaxy, but in 2013 experienced "the failure of the second of four reaction wheels, which are used to stabilize the spacecraft,"
NASA reported.
Kepler detects planets by measuring the light from stars, which dims when a planet passes in front of them. This detection requires a very precise measurement, and after the stabilization failures scientists thought the craft might be unable to fulfill its mission.
"Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation," said Paul Hertz, NASA's astrophysics division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
That's when they went back to the drawing board, and discovered they could create a "virtual reaction wheel" by harnessing the pressure from sunlight.
"Today, thanks to an innovative idea and lots of hard work by the NASA and Ball Aerospace team, Kepler may well deliver the first candidates for follow-up study by the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize the atmospheres of distant worlds and search for signatures of life," said Hertz.