SoylentNews

chromas writes:

Just over a year and a half ago, the Kepler space telescope suffered a failure of the second of its four stabilizing reaction wheels, prompting a 'shutdown' of its data–gathering mission because, if nothing else, the sun itself would continuously put pressure on the telescope to rotate. However, some engineers figured out that if they rotate Kepler to near-parallel to the sun, the solar pressure is evenly distributed across its surface and acts as kind of a third wheel.

Now, a team of scientists have announced Kepler is still helping us make discoveries. From the Harvard CfA:

Due to Kepler's reduced pointing capabilities, extracting useful data requires sophisticated computer analysis. Vanderburg and his colleagues developed specialized software to correct for spacecraft movements, achieving about half the photometric precision of the original Kepler mission.

Kepler's new life began with a 9-day test in February 2014. When Vanderburg and his colleagues analyzed that data, they found that Kepler had detected a single planetary transit.

The newfound planet, HIP 116454b, has a diameter of 20,000 miles, two and a half times the size of Earth. HARPS-N showed that it weighs almost 12 times as much as Earth. This makes HIP 116454b a super-Earth, a class of planets that doesn't exist in our solar system. The average density suggests that this planet is either a water world (composed of about three-fourths water and one-fourth rock) or a mini-Neptune with an extended, gaseous atmosphere.