With this method, sky watchers can accurately estimate the object’s mass and distance from the star. Kepler discovered more than 2,600 of those “new” planets with the simple detection trick of monitoring the change in light via what is called “transit,” or what occurs when a celestial body, potentially a planet, passes between the observatory and a distant star. NASA's Kepler space telescope (above in an artistic rendering) discovered more than 2,600 "new" planets before it was retired in 2018. The majority of these exoplanets-more than 5,200 as of this writing-are known thanks to the Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 and operated until the fuel supply required for the observatory to maintain its orbit was finally exhausted nine years later. Almost half a century later, the museum’s reconceptualized exhibition, “Exploring the Planets,” reflects the fact that astronomers have since confirmed the existence of thousands more outside our own solar system and are now confident the Milky Way galaxy contains even more planets than stars. When the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum opened in 1976, the planets known to science numbered just nine.
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