The COROT spacecraft. Credits: CNES/D. Ducros
More bad news on the exoplanet-hunting front: While the final fate of the Kepler spacecraft remains unknown, the CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and Planetary Transits) satellite has now been officially shut down. CoRoT suffered a computer failure on November, 2, 2012 and although the spacecraft is capable of receiving navigational commands, the French Space Agency CNES reports it can no longer retrieve data from its 30-centimeter telescope. After a valiant effort to try and restore the computer, CNES announced this week that the spacecraft has been retired. CoRoT’s journey will come to a fiery end as it will be deorbited and it will burn up on re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere.
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Read the rest of Another Exoplanet Hunting Mission Ends: CoRoT Spacecraft Can’t be Recovered (348 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. |
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Post tags: Corot, exoplanets, Missions
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