Breaking

AI discovers over 300 unknown exoplanets in Kepler telescope data - Space.com
Nov 28, 2021 1 min, 34 secs

A new artificial intelligence algorithm has discovered over 300 previously unknown exoplanets in data gathered by a now-defunct exoplanet-hunting telescope. .

The Kepler Space Telescope, NASA's first dedicated exoplanet hunter, has observed hundreds of thousands of stars in the search for potentially habitable worlds outside our solar system.

The telescope, which stopped working in November 2018, looked for temporary decreases in the brightness of the stars that might be caused by a planet crossing in front of the star's disk as seen from Kepler's perspective.

And Kepler generated plenty of data: In the less than 10 years of its service, the telescope discovered thousands of planet candidates, nearly 3,000 of which have since been confirmed!

For each candidate exoplanet, scientists poring through the Kepler data would look at the light curve and calculate how large a portion of the star the planet seems to be covering.

The ExoMiner algorithm follows exactly the same process but more efficiently, which allowed the researchers to add a batch of 301 previously unknown exoplanets into the Kepler planet catalog at once. !

— Last light: Here's the final view from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope.

Now that ExoMiner proved its skills, scientists are looking to use it to help sift through data from other existing and upcoming exoplanet-searching missions, such as NASA's current Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) or the European Space Agency's Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) mission that will launch in 2026. .

She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED