Artificial Intelligence has become the best ally of astronomers in the search for new planets.
Some of the technological advances developed in recent years can represent a before and after in the outer space research. Among them, AI stands out, a technique that has positioned itself as a promising option to identify planets that traditional methods cannot.
AI goes one step further than the human eye can reach and proves that it can be a transcendental ally looking to the future of astronomy. The limits of the universe are still unknown and it is highly likely that their discovery will be escape within reach of human ability and traditional technology.
Algorithm with accuracy up to 98%
The discovery of exoplanets K2-293b and K2-294b it has been the work of astronomers at the University of Texas. It has been a collaboration with Google’s artificial intelligence and NASA’s Kepler space telescope. UT student Anne Dattilo has developed an algorithm that analyze the data collected by the Kepler space telescope and discover the signs of the planets that traditional technology has failed to detect.
The Kepler (launched in 2009) and its extension K2 (in orbit since 2013) have discovered to date thousands of planets and other stars. The new artificial intelligence algorithm has helped to eliminate noise from the collected data and capture the signals with a accuracy up to 98%.
Orbiting space telescope
“Artificial intelligence helps us look for the dataset in a way that uniform. Even if each star had a planet the size of the Earth around it, when we look with Kepler, we will not find them all, ” explained the astronomers involved in the discovery.
Human supervision is imprescindible
The two planets have been detected at a distance of 1300 and 1230 light years. Both are located in the constellation Aquarius, have short orbits around a star, are hot and slightly sized top the one on Earth.
In short, AI has the ability to automate and give uniformity in search of planets. However, human supervision and the use of traditional astronomy tools is essential. The data collected by the algorithm corresponds to a pre-set search pattern, so the intelligence and human creativity it continues to be essential to expand margins and corroborate information from AI.
