Eighth planet of Kepler-90 discovered

Our own solar system with eight planets around a single star has long been special, but now 2545 light years of the earth have found its equal.

Kepler-90i is a glowing hot, rocky exoplanet that describes a course around the mother star in 14.4 days. The proof of existence was provided by using Google's machine learning, the step to artificial intelligence with computer programs that improve themselves. In this case they learned to identify planets by finding evidence for their existence in Kepler's data files.

'This discovery shows that our data will be a rich source for innovative researchers in the years to come,' said Paul Hertz, director of the NASA Astrophysics department. Scientists Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg trained the computer in spotting exoplanets using light measurements through the telescope. A minuscule change in the brightness of a star betrays the passage of a planet.