NASA & Google Discover Two New Planets Orbiting Sun-Like Stars
Described as a major discovery by both entities, astronomers say they already knew about it.
NASA and Google have announced that they’ve found another solar system with eight planets. Described as a major discovery by the two entities, astronomers already knew about the star system, called Kepler-90, and its seven planets. However, utilizing AI software by Google, an eighth planet, Kepler-90i, a hot, rocky orb circling a sun-like star, was found.
The AI used machine learning to sift through NASA Kepler data to find it, initially observed by a space telescope peering 150,000 sun-like stars for years on end looking for planets. Kepler-90i is the third planet from its sun and orbits the star once every 14 days, with surface temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Before this investigation, NASA’s latest analysis of Kepler data confirmed 219 new worlds in more than 4,000 candidates that two Kepler campaigns had turned up. NASA’s total of authenticated exoplanets in Kepler’s data is now 2,525, 10 of which may be rocky, Earth-size, and possibly able to house alien life.
