NASA retires 9-year-old telescope that found over 2,600 planets
NASA on Tuesday retired its first planet-hunting mission as the Kepler Space Telescope ran out of fuel. Launched in March 2009 into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit, Kepler discovered over 2,600 planets outside the solar system. "Kepler wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said NASA.