False alarm sent Kepler into safe mode: team
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 12:01
in Astronomy & Space
The Kepler Project Team successfully returned the spacecraft to normal operations on Jan. 6, 2011. The team determined the condition was caused by unexpected noise in the signal from Kepler's sun sensors that erroneously indicated Kepler might be pointing too close to the sun. This was a false alarm, but the team treated it seriously.