A few years ago NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft was crippled by a mechanical malfunction which really threw a wrench in the works discovered 100 new alien planets orbiting other stars.It has found a system with three planets that are bigger than Earth, spotted a planet in the Hyades star cluster—the nearest open star cluster to Earth—and discovered a planet being ripped apart as it orbits a white dwarf star.
Kepler (spacecraft):
Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.The spacecraft, named after the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler,was launched on March 7, 2009.