--- description: The discovery marks a remarkable turnaround for Kepler title: NASA’s Planet Hunter Discovers Planet image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a49b8cf39744d64/69877013cd68483bfe098bf2/rtr3e1vj.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [astronomy](/tag/astronomy/) ## astronomy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # NASA’s Kepler Telescope Discovers Another Planet on Comeback by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2014 6:37 AM CUT  An artist's conception of the tiny new planet Kepler-37b, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon and orbits its host star every 13 days, in this image released by NASA, Feb. 20, 2013 An artist's conception of the tiny new planet Kepler-37b, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon and orbits its host star every 13 days, in this image released by NASA, Feb. 20, 2013NASA/Reuters by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2014 6:37 AM CUT 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 "undefined") 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 "undefined") the New York _Times._ ```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":"2026-02-22T03:00:27.386Z","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":"Phone Home: NASA's Call Center","description":"NASA has been communicating with astronauts and spacecraft via the Deep Space Network for over 50 years.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uGQRvwuW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-01-08T18:10:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uGQRvwuW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/","duration":"PT3M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3641539/nasa-kepler-planet/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```