Spacewatch: Nasa retires planet hunter after it runs out of fuel

Mechanical failures ended the most precise phase of Kepler's observations about five years ago but the craft continued its search

Nasa's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel and ended its mission to discover planets around other stars.

Launched in 2009, Kepler observed 530,506 stars and discovered more than 2600 confirmed planets. Kepler has also identified thousands more possible planets that are pending further investigation.