Kepler telescope declared dead after running out of fuel

The Kepler telescope was sent into space by NASA about ten years ago. In this lifespan, it discovered 2,681 planets outside our solar system and even more potential candidates. It showed us rocky worlds the size of Earth that, like Earth, might harbor life. It also unveiled incredible super-Earths: planets bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

But the planet-hunting spacecraft is out of fuel after finding that the galaxy contains more planets than stars, many of which may be suitable for the development of life. Its ability to point at distant stars and identify possible alien worlds worsened dramatically at the beginning of October, but flight controllers still managed to retrieve its latest observations. The telescope has now gone silent, its fuel tank is empty.