Kepler`s final image
(PHYSorg.com Space & Earth)

On October 30th, 2018, after nine years of faithful service, the Kepler Space Telescope was officially retired. With nearly 4000 candidates and 2,662 confirmed exoplanets to its credit, no other telescope has managed to teach us more about the worlds that exist beyond our solar system. In the coming years, multiple next-generation telescopes will be deployed that will attempt to build on the foundation Kepler built.