Kepler telescope exoplanet hunter, the victim of a failure - Reuters

Kepler U.S. space telescope dedicated to the search for exoplanets, is paralyzed by a technical problem that could spell the premature end of his four-year mission, NASA said Wednesday.

“Kepler was my North, my South, my east, my west, my working week, my weekend without rest (…). I thought it would never stop, I was wrong “laments astronomer Geoff Marcy, in the magazine New Scientist , inspired by a quote from the Anglo-American poet Wystan Auden.

Launched in 2009, the famous “Hunter planets” satellite is blocked by a malfunctioning gyroscope, a mechanism that allows it to point in a given direction of our galaxy, the Milky Way, said John Grunsfeld, a former NASA astronaut, now head of the science division of the U.S. space agency.

time, “the telescope was put into safe mode to ensure that its solar panels facing the sun to recharge the batteries and continue to communicate with the Earth,” he said.

engineers found last week that the gyroscope was unresponsive to commands from the ground. The same failure had already occurred in July on another gyro stopped working leaving the telescope without a “spare tire”.

“Not even the end of Kepler”

“Unfortunately, notes Mr. Grunsfeld, Kepler is not a place where you can send astronauts” to repair as NASA had done twice with Hubble. For now, the engineers’ review the data very carefully to see whether it is possible to resume the scientific activities of the telescope. “

But this is not “the end of Kepler,” he insisted, stressing that “above all things the mission was a success.”

a total cost of 600 million dollars (465 million euros), Kepler is the first telescope dedicated to the search for planets sisters of the Earth in other solar systems in the Milky Way, in particular in the constellation Lyra and Cygnus. To date, it has detected 2,740 potential exoplanets 132 were confirmed using other telescopes and equipment.

last month astronomers announced in the journal Science , discovery, thanks to Kepler, two “super-Earths” within the “space” of their star area. These are two of the most Earth-like exoplanets detected so far. They may harbor water in the liquid state and thus provide favorable to the emergence of life environment.

The mission was originally scheduled to last at least four years. Although Kepler was to be permanently shut down, it will, whatever happens, fulfilled its contract.