What Is Kepler's Contribution to the Study of Exoplanets?
Kepler's legacy extends to modern astrophysics through missions such as the Kepler Space Telescope, launched by NASA in 2009. The telescope was specifically designed to discover exoplanets by detecting the slight dimming of a star as a planet transits in front of it. This method, known as the transit method, relies on principles rooted in Kepler's laws.