Research Blog: Open Sourcing the Hunt for Exoplanets

Open Sourcing the Hunt for Exoplanets

Open Sourcing the Hunt for Exoplanets

Recently, we discovered two exoplanets by training a neural network to analyze data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope and accurately identify the most promising planet signals. And while this was only an initial analysis of ~700 stars, we consider this a successful proof-of-concept for using machine learning to discover exoplanets, and more generally another example of using machine learning to make meaningful gains in a variety of scientific disciplines (e.g. healthcare, quantum chemistry, and fusion research).

Today, we’re excited to release our code for processing the Kepler data, training our neural network model, and making predictions about new candidate signals. We hope this release will prove a useful starting point for developing similar models for other NASA missions, like K2 (Kepler’s second mission) and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. As well as announcing the release of our code, we’d also like take this opportunity to dig a bit deeper into how our model works.

Source: research.googleblog.com/2018/03/open-sourcing-hunt-for-exoplanets.html