--- title: NASA: Planet-Huntering Kepler Telescope Discovers Planet on Comeback description: The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler canonical: https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-19T06:37:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:21.162Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA’s Planet Hunter Discovers Planet og:description: The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler. og:url: https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a49b8cf39744d64/69877013cd68483bfe098bf2/rtr3e1vj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1399 og:image:height: 787 og:image:alt: Nasa image of an artist's conception of the tiny new planet Kepler-37b og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA’s Planet Hunter Discovers Planet twitter:description: The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a49b8cf39744d64/69877013cd68483bfe098bf2/rtr3e1vj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NASA’s Kepler Telescope Discovers Another Planet on Comeback > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=12a9e101-3bdf-4413-89eb-43c3e399e402&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Phone Home: NASA's Call Center [Watch (HLS stream): Phone Home: NASA's Call Center](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uGQRvwuW.m3u8) (3:48)  _Published 2014-01-08. NASA has been communicating with astronauts and spacecraft via the Deep Space Network for over 50 years._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 19, 2014 6:37 AM UTC Kepler’s original mission ended in 2013, when guidance systems aboard the observatory stopped working. Now researchers are using sunlight to realign the spacecraft. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 19, 2014 6:37 AM UTC NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has [found](http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-s-kepler-reborn-makes-first-exoplanet-find-of-new-mission/#.VJPCFALYJA) another new planet. Dubbed HIP 116454b, the new body is bigger than Earth, smaller than Neptune and probably too hot to sustain life as we know it. “The Kepler mission showed us that planets larger in size than Earth and smaller than Neptune are common in the galaxy, yet they are absent in our solar system,” Steve Howell, a project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, said in statement. The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler. In May 2013, one of Kepler’s stabilizing reaction wheels failed and a team of engineers and scientists were forced to fashion an ingenious alternative for controlling the spacecraft, using pressure generated from sunlight. During a subsequent test run in February, Kepler collected data on a previously undiscovered planet 180 light-years from Earth. Follow-up observations confirmed the existence of the planet, which astronomers have called a watery “mini-Neptune,” with a tiny core and gaseous atmosphere, [reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/science/kepler-spacecraft-finds-new-planet.html?%5Fr=0) the New York _Times._ ## Transcript >> On a rotating planet, a single antenna could never keep in constant contact with a space craft at any great distance. For that reason, the Deep Space Network has three sets of antennas located about 120 degrees apart around the globe; Madrid in Spain, Goldstone in California, and Canberra in Australia. At no point is the spacecraft vast in blackout. The Deep Space Network first went online in December of 1963 and has been in constant use ever since. At the moment, it's communicating with more than 30 Deep Space spacecraft. Spacecraft and human beings have been traveling to the moon for more than 50 years now and most of the images with the small exception of the ones hand carried by astronauts on traditional film were sent back through the Deep Space Network. >> Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. >> The original and iconic scenes of Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface of the Sea of Tranquility, that came through the DSN. >> That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. But I was [ unk ] -[ unk ] images of Apollo 17 taking off. >> Three, two, one, ignition. >> We're on our way, Houston. >> And the first colored broadcast from the surface of the moon. >> Okay, Houston, I'm gonna [ unk ] chamber now. >> Roger, out. >> Richard Nixon may be the only president ever to communicate by the Deep Space Network when he spoke to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon in July of 1969. >> Hello Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. >> Transmissions from the moon to earth take about a second and a half to get here, which is about as long as it takes light to travel to 239, 000 miles from here to there. For Mars, it's a different story. The distance between Mars and the Earth changes depending upon where they are in their orbits. And when the Curiosity Rover landed in 2012, the two planets were about 154 million miles apart, which means it took close to 14 minutes for a signal including an image to come from there to here. -[ unk ] confirmed. Proceed to Mars. >> Color images don't come in in full color. The color has to be added later as data's impact through different filters and at different frequencies is interrupted to add hues and shades to what's originally a black and white image. Over the course of time, the quality of the photographs has gotten strikingly sharper. The first images from Mars were grainy fly over shots. By the time Curiosity landed in 2012, the pictures that were coming home were in some cases almost indistinguishable from high- quality photography taken in the maizes and bad lands of the southwest. A network that was built in 1963 has been used by generations of spacecraft that couldn't even have been dreamed of back then. 50 years from now when the DSN is 100 years old, it may be the source of communications from human beings living and working on Mars. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/"},"headline":"NASA’s Kepler Telescope Discovers Another Planet on Comeback","datePublished":"2014-12-19T06:37:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:02:21.162Z","description":"The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler","url":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/","keywords":["astronomy","Space","NASA","Kepler","Telescope"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a49b8cf39744d64/69877013cd68483bfe098bf2/rtr3e1vj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a49b8cf39744d64/69877013cd68483bfe098bf2/rtr3e1vj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nasa image of an artist's conception of the tiny new planet Kepler-37b","caption":"Nasa image of an artist's conception of the tiny new planet Kepler-37b","creditText":"NASA/Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/astronomy/","name":"astronomy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/","name":"NASA’s Kepler Telescope Discovers Another Planet on Comeback"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Researchers Restart Kepler’s Planet-Finding Mission With Sunlight","description":"Kepler’s original mission ended in 2013, when guidance systems aboard the observatory stopped working. 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