You know when you have an old PC that only kinda works? Like it still does some stuff; it just can't do all the stuff it used to. It'd be a waste to get rid of it, so you might keep it in the garage to play tunes while you're working on your car or something. That's sort of like what the Kepler Space Observatory is today: NASA's junky garage computer.

Okay, that example is a bit unfair. While Kepler has undergone some mechanical hardships, it's still fulfilling its primary mission: Observing faraway solar systems.

Kepler was launched in 2009 and tasked with identifying exoplanets, particularly Earth-like ones. It's done so with aplomb, identifying over 2,327 exoplanets to date.

Unfortunately, back in 2013, the observatory suffered a "severe malfunction," when a pair of gyroscopes broke, hobbling the telescope's ability to focus precisely. So, NASA engineers came up with a workaround solution which uses the pressure of sunlight to stabilize the craft. The new mission, dubbed K2 "Second Light," allows Kepler to continue functioning (and identifying exoplanets).

Now, as Airspacemag.com notes, researchers have lifehacked Kepler once more to give it the ability to observe some of the large gas giants in our own solar system, namely Neptune. (Here's a white paper (PDF) outlining the proposed mission pivot.)

By design, Kepler stays focused on a particular patch of sky. However, (relatively) local bodies—like Neptune, for example—inevitably cross through its gaze. So, between December 2014 and March 2015, Kepler captured data from Neptune as it traveled through a piece of sky it was already taking in. The details can be found in a paper published here.

This pivot is a welcome mission development, considering that Neptune has only been visited once by a man-made observatory, NASA's Voyager 2, which had a rendezvous with the blue gassy giant back in 1989. The only (detailed) images we have of ol' bluey come courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Researchers were particularly interested in using Kepler to collect data on Neptune's clouds. This data has implications in the way we gather data on "brown dwarfs," i.e. super large gas giants which don't quite have enough gravitational oomph to sustain hydrogen fusion. Or, as the study describes it: "The K2 Neptune light curve, in conjunction with our imaging data, provides context for the interpretation of current and future brown dwarf and extrasolar planet variability measurements."

While this particular study didn't yield any sexy space images of Neptune, we do have some from previous missions. Click through the slideshow to see some close-up images of Neptune that our various observatories have been able to capture over the years. It's a beautiful place!

Note: All dates are image published dates.


1. August 25, 1989 Cloudy with a chance of Neptune. This image shows cloud tops over Neptune as captured by Voyager 2.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

2. August 28, 1989 This image shows Neptune and its moon, Triton.



Image: NASA

3. August 20, 1989 A full view of Neptune as captured by Voyager 2.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

4. January 29, 1996 A false color photograph of Neptune as the Voyager 2 made its way out of the solar system.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

5. May 7, 2004 Jupiter isn't the only planet with a giant spot. Neptune has one as shown in this Voyager image snapped only 45 minutes before the craft's closest approach.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

6. October 9, 2009 The blue planet in infrared.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

7. July 12, 2011 This image shows Neptune as captured by the Hubble space telescope.



Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

8. August 24, 1989 This filtered image shows Neptune's rings, and marks the first time these planetary features of Neptune were captured in detail.



Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

9. June 16, 2011 This image captured by Hubble shows Neptune and its family of moons.



Image: Hubble

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