Fears for the future of NASA's Kepler Telescope may be assuaged as the space agency resumed communications with the satellite after it had unexpectedly gone into an 'emergency mode' over the weekend.
The trouble arose sometime after Thursday when the exoplanet-hunting telescope inexplicably ceased communicating with engineers back on Earth.
Particularly worrying to NASA was that the Kepler was already functioning at less than its peak abilities after half of its stabilizing gyroscopes failed in 2013.
At the time of the 'emergency mode' initiation, the device was poised to begin a new phase of research centered around observing the core of the Milky Way galaxy.
Thankfully, NASA announced today that it has resumed communication with Kepler and is now attempting to determine what conditions arose which prompted the 'emergency mode.'
Considering that the telescope had never previously needed to initiated the condition, the space agency is hopeful that it is not indicative of a larger issue that might be plaguing the vaunted telescope.
Until the precise reason for the 'emergency mode' is known, we'll hold out hope that the telescope was tinkered with by aliens growing weary of Earthlings trying to eavesdrop on them.
Source: Discovery News