- It is an unmanned space observatory
- Launched in 2009 by NASA
- It aims to detect Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy
- It does not probe the environmental conditions of planets
- It works by observing a dimming in the light of a star, known as a transit, each time an orbiting planet passes in front of it
- Why in news? It has discovered 10 earth like planets outside our solar system.