NASA announced a problem on Wednesday that threatens to cripple one of its highest-profile missions, the Kepler Space Telescope, an instrument dedicated to finding Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.
Since its launch in 2009, Kepler has found 130 planets orbiting other stars and 2,500 planet candidates requiring further investigation. The space telescope has pulled back the veil on the true nature of the Milky Way, showing it to be a galaxy rich with planets, and potential homes for life outside of Earth.
Gazette staff writer Alvin Powell discussed the problem with one of Kepler’s co-investigators, Astronomy Professor Dimitar Sasselov, asking what the glitch means for Kepler, for the quest for extra-solar planets, and for the search for life outside the solar system.