Kepler Space Telescope

The three exoplanets were detected when the now-defunct spacecraft was ‘running on fumes’.

The Kepler space telescope is retired, but it leaves behind a wealth of data and information about planets orbiting stars beyond our Solar System.

The Exoplanet Explorers website helped to uncover a world which lies in a size 'gap' - the range between 1.5 and two Earth radii where few planets have been found. The planet was hidden in data that had previously been throw out to prevent errors, but which could now be analysed safely.

The Kepler space telescope may have run out fuel, but for NASA scientists there is alot of important work yet to be done. We spoke to Kepler scientist Geert Barentsen to find out what the mission has achieved, and what lies ahead.

In 2009, BBC Sky at Night Magazine spoke to NASA scientist Bill Borucki, then principal investigator of the Kepler space telescope, about what it took to get the mission off the ground

After nine years in deep space, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has run out of fuel. Paul F Cockburn asks what it’s shown us.

Astronomers may have discovered an exomoon larger than Neptune around a planet several times larger than Jupiter.

So far, no moons have been discovered around planets outside of our Solar System. But the hunt for 'exomoons' could be about to step up a gear...

Our Solar System is no longer the only eight-planet system we know of, following a new discovery made by artificial intelligence. For more on how artificial intelligence can help astronomers, pick up a copy of the January issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, out 21 December 2017.