Researchers used data from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope to discover an eighth planet orbiting a star known as Kepler-90.
The planet, dubbed Kepler-90i, is a hot, rocky planet that orbits its star every 14.4 days, and was found with the help of artificial intelligence, NASA said Thursday. The discovery marks the first solar system to tie with our solar system in the number of planets orbiting one star.
"The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system. You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer,” Andrew Vanderburg, a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow and astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement,
Vanderburg and researcher Christopher Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team Google AI, used machine learning to make the discovery. The duo trained a computer to identify exoplanets in light readings recorded by Kepler. The planet-hunting telescope monitors the brightness of stars and looks for tiny dips in light patterns that could signify an orbiting planet. The machine sifted through Kepler data and found signals from the previously missed eighth planet orbiting Kepler-90, according to a statement from NASA.
While this isn't the first time machine learning has been used in searches of Kepler data, it marks a promising shift in how researchers sift through data, according to NASA.
And before you start packing your bags for Kepler-90i, NASA cautions that other planetary systems "hold more promise for life" than the Kepler-90 star system.
NASA said Kepler-90i is so close to its star, that the average surface temperature may exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
More: Live stream: NASA announces latest Kepler discovery
More: 10 new planets that could have life
More: Hawking: AI could be 'worst event in the history of our civilization'
The research has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "NASA's Kepler finds solar system like ours with eight planets"
Post a Comment