Launched in 2009, the Kepler space telescope was designed to search for exoplanets—planets outside our solar system—using the transit method, which detects planets by observing the dimming of a star when a planet passes in front of it. Over nine years, Kepler discovered more than 2,680 exoplanets, including many that are rocky and potentially habitable. However, on October 11, 2018, Kepler sent its last images due to a lack of fuel needed to maintain its precise pointing. NASA officially shut it down on October 30, 2018, marking the end of its mission. Kepler was equipped with a powerful Schmidt camera and a 1.4-meter primary mirror, allowing it to capture high-resolution images of distant stars. Its sensors, arranged in a mosaic, provided an impressive 95-megapixel resolution, enabling it to simultaneously observe hundreds of thousands of stars. This advanced technology made it possible to detect the subtle changes in starlight caused by orbiting planets. The results were extraordinary, with over 2,680 exoplanets discovered, including hundreds that are rocky and possibly capable of supporting life. Despite its success, Kepler faced technical challenges. In 2014 and 2017, two of its detection modules failed, reducing its operational capacity. However, the remaining modules continued to function until the telescope ran out of fuel for its pointing mechanism. On October 11, 2018, while 170 million kilometers from Earth, Kepler transmitted its final images. Attempts to reorient the telescope later that month failed, and NASA officially retired the spacecraft on October 30, 2018, after nearly ten years of groundbreaking discoveries. Now, Kepler drifts in space on a heliocentric orbit, meaning it orbits the Sun directly. Unlike satellites in Earth orbit, which can be deorbited and safely re-entered, Kepler is too far from Earth to be retrieved or controlled. Without fuel, power, or communication, it is essentially a silent, drifting object. It will continue its journey around the Sun indefinitely, an unobserved relic of human ingenuity and exploration. Although Kepler has stopped functioning, its legacy lives on in the data it collected. Scientists worldwide continue to analyze its findings, using them to refine models, compare new observations, and study known exoplanets in greater detail. This is a hallmark of space exploration: even when a spacecraft is no longer operational, its contributions can shape scientific understanding for decades. Kepler’s mission demonstrated that detecting potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system is not only possible but has opened the door for future space missions to explore these distant worlds further.