SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Young Astronomer Uses Artificial Intelligence To Discover 2 Exoplanets

A team of astronomers led by an undergraduate student in Texas has discovered two planets orbiting stars more than 1,200 light-years from Earth.

Astronomers already knew of about 4,000 exoplanets, so finding two more might not seem like huge news. But it's who found them and how that's getting attention.

Anne Dattilo, a senior at the University of Texas, Austin, found the planets by using an artificial intelligence program to sift through a mountain of data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope. By using AI, the 22-year-old is helping to usher in a new era in astronomical research.

Dattilo got involved in the project about a year and a half ago, after astronomer Andrew Vanderburg gave a talk during one of her classes. Vanderburg uses data from Kepler to hunt for planets orbiting distant stars.

"And at the very end, he said, 'I'm taking undergrads if any of you want to do research on this subject finding planets,' " Dattilo recalls. "I decided that's what I wanted to do, so I emailed him."

Original Submission