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New Deep Learning Method Adds 301 Planets to Kepler's Total Count - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

New Deep Learning Method Adds 301 Planets to Kepler's Total Count - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Nov 22, 2021 2 mins, 40 secs

Over 4,5000 planets have been found around other stars, but scientists expect that our galaxy contains millions of planets.

Scientists have added a whopping 301 newly confirmed exoplanets to the total exoplanet tally.

Scientists recently added a whopping 301 newly validated exoplanets to the total exoplanet tally.

The throng of planets is the latest to join the 4,569 already validated planets orbiting a multitude of distant stars?

How did scientists discover such a huge number of planets, seemingly all at once.

This is one method scientists use to find exoplanets.

Using this plot, scientists can see what percentage of the star's light the planet blocks and how long it takes the planet to cross the disk of the star.

ExoMiner is a new deep neural network that leverages NASA’s Supercomputer, Pleiades, and can distinguish real exoplanets from different types of imposters, or “false positives.” Its design is inspired by various tests and properties human experts use to confirm new exoplanets.

And it learns by using past confirmed exoplanets and false positive cases.

Specifically, data gathered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft and K2, its follow-on mission.

For missions like Kepler, with thousands of stars in its field of view, each holding the possibility to host multiple potential exoplanets, it's a hugely time-consuming task to pore over massive datasets.

NASA’s Eyes on Exoplanets shows the location of over 4,500 planets around other stars outside our solar system.

Users can also see information about the physical features of the planets (where known) and the stars they orbit.

What is the difference between a confirmed and validated exoplanet.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, the team at Ames shows how ExoMiner discovered the 301 planets using data from the remaining set of possible planets – or candidates – in the Kepler Archive.

All 301 machine-validated planets were originally detected by the Kepler Science Operations Center pipeline and promoted to planet candidate status by the Kepler Science Office.

But until ExoMiner, no one was able to validate them as planets.

The paper also demonstrates how ExoMiner is more precise and consistent in ruling out false positives and better able to reveal the genuine signatures of planets orbiting their parent stars – all while giving scientists the ability to see in detail what led ExoMiner to its conclusion.

None of the newly confirmed planets are believed to be Earth-like or in the habitable zone of their parent stars.

But they do share similar characteristics to the overall population of confirmed exoplanets in our galactic neighborhood.

As the search for more exoplanets continues – with missions using transit photometry such as NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, and the European Space Agency's upcoming PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, or PLATO, mission – ExoMiner will have more opportunities to prove it's up to the task.

“Now that we've trained ExoMiner using Kepler data, with a little fine-tuning, we can transfer that learning to other missions, including TESS, which we're currently working on,” said Valizadegan.

NASA Ames managed the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

JPL managed Kepler mission development?

The Lives of Stars and the Search for Habitable Worlds

Kepler Mission

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