Citizen Scientists Uncover Kepler Space Telescope's Final Planets in Archive Data

Citizen scientists sifting through archive data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope have identified the last three exoplanets discovered by the telescope. The Kepler Space Telescope, which launched in 2009, spent four years monitoring stars for the dip in brightness caused by a planet passing in front. After a reaction wheel failure in 2013, the telescope conducted the K2 observing campaign until it ran out of fuel in 2018. Despite the lack of fuel, the telescope's last observation run provided enough data for citizen scientists to identify three potential planets, confirming two of them. The discovery highlights the historical importance of these planets, given the circumstances of their identification.