Another planet discovered by NASA – 2,545 light-years from Earth

Today, the scientific world was watching as NASA made a big announcement. Its Kepler Space Telescope, which has been conducting an intensive planet-hunting mission since 2009, had new results to share with the public.

A media release from NASA states:

“Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star, with the recent discovery of an eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star 2,545 light years from Earth. The planet was discovered in data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

The newly-discovered Kepler-90i – a sizzling hot, rocky planet that orbits its star once every 14.4 days – was found using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence in which computers “learn.” In this case, computers learned to identify planets by finding in Kepler data instances where the telescope recorded signals from planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets."

There are some very technical and scientific data and information here. As well, a lot of questions to be asked and answered. That’s where experts like Dr. Michael Reed from Missouri State University can help.

Dr. Reed is a professor of astronomy at Missouri State. He researches extrasolar planets and pulsating stars. Dr. Reed is available to speak to the media and can explain what this all means for science, the study of space and if there might actually be life out there. Click on his icon to connect with him.

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