Kepler space telescope

The Kepler telescope, also known as the Kepler Space Telescope, is a retired space telescope launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. Named in honor of the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler, the telescope was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit on March 7, 2009. Its primary mission was to survey a portion of the Milky Way to determine the statistics of Earth-size, habitable-zone planets around Sun-like stars. The telescope used a photometer that continuously monitored the brightness of over 150,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. In Hebrew, the Kepler telescope is called "טלסקופ קפלר". The mission's data has led to the discovery of over 2,600 confirmed exoplanets, significantly enhancing our understanding of planetary systems beyond our solar system. The telescope's mission was divided into several phases, with the initial mission lasting 3.5 years and subsequent extended missions continuing its groundbreaking work until the telescope was retired in October 2018 due to a lack of fuel.