Photo: NASA

Left for dead back in May, the planet-finding Kepler telescope got some new life on Monday.

At the opening of the second-ever Kepler Science Conference, where researchers presented new findings from the telescope’s four-years worth of archived data—including hundreds of confirmed exoplanets and several thousand planet candidates—NASA announced something surprising: the telescope may not be dead after all.

Back in May, NASA put the telescope on life support after it was found that one of its three functioning wheels, which help it point towards certain areas of the sky, was malfunctioning. At the time, it seemed like exoplanet hunters would have to simply work with the years-worth of backlogged data that Kepler has accumulated. Turns out, Kepler might not be dead after all.

Charlie Sobeck, deputy project manager of Kepler, kicked off the conference with the announcement of K2, a mission that will let Kepler use its two functioning wheels to search for new planets in the so-called ecliptic plane, which is the line along Earth’s orbit. Sobeck said that most of Kepler’s scientific modules continue to operate normally, and said that the telescope has between 7 and 10 years of fuel left.

“Aside from the failed reaction wheels, the other spacecraft systems are performing well,” he said.

NASA has already experimented with what two-wheeled pointing might look like. “Initial two-wheel pointing has been implemented on the spacecraft and initial results are encouraging,” according to a paper Sobeck submitted for the conference.

Steve Howell, another NASA Kepler scientist, said that the team has designed what they believe to be a “sellable, viable mission,” and that official proposals to operate K2 will be submitted to NASA in the coming months. 

“We’re trying to get the nod to move on to the senior mission review between now and February,” Howell said. 

NASA will likely decide soon after if it’s worthwhile to continue operating Kepler.

Launched in 2009, Kepler has provided astronomers with a wealth of information about planets many light years away. It detects planets by tracing their orbits as they pass their host star. As the planet casts shadows on the star, astronomers are able to predict a planet’s radius and distance from its star.

The telescope has also given space journalists plenty to write about: It’s discovered many “Earth-like” planets in “habitable zones,” meaning they are similar in size and density to Earth and exist in habitable zones that are not too far or too close from their sun to host conditions that are favorable to life as we know it. The newest findings estimate that roughly one in every five sunlike stars is orbited by a potentially habitable, Earth-size planet. The telescope has also, on occasion, helped planetary geologists find crazy hellscape planets where years are eight hours long.

Sizes of Kepler Planet Candidates – based on 2,740 candidates orbiting 2,036 stars as of 7 January 2013 (NASA).

“Earth-sized planets having the temperature of a cup of tea are common around sunlike stars,” Geoff Marcy, a Berkeley planet hunter and a co-author of one new study, told the Washington Post. He said the finding “represents one great leap toward the possibility of life, including intelligent life, in the universe.”

Ever since Kepler’s third wheel failed, scientists working on the project have said they planned on searching for ways to have the telescope remain useful. At the time, it seemed like wishful thinking, but in the past several months, many groups, including some based at NASA, have submitted white papers for how to get some more science out of Kepler.

It seems they’ve gone with one coauthored by Howell and published by Cornell University in early September. According to that paper, “Kepler retains unique capabilities impossible to replicate from the ground or with existing or future space missions.”

The new mission would cover “more than 40 times as much sky as in its prime mission,” but would be unable to detect small, rocky planets around sun-like stars. That’s because it’d be difficult, if not impossible, to get Kepler to remain pointed at one distinct area for any length of time. Instead, it would do a “transit survey,” of 20 different fields for 60 days each, or 40 different fields for 30 days each. The telescope would only be able to detect planets orbiting host stars that are roughly 10 times brighter than the stars aimed at in its primary mission.

“The survey could yield hundreds of gas and ice giants orbiting host FGK stars and hundreds of ice giants and rocky Super Earths orbiting mid- to late M stars,” the white paper said. FGK are the sun-like stars that were targeted in its primary mission, M stars are the coolest in the universe and often appear reddish. 

“K2, the story begins,” Howell said. Come February, he might be right.