back to article Sigh. It's not quite Star Trek's Data, but it'll do: AI helps boffins clock second Solar System

Our Solar System is no longer the largest known planetary system in the Milky Way – after scientists confirmed the existence of an eighth planet, Kepler-90i, around a Sun-like star on Thursday. The discovery was made after Christopher Shallue, a senior software engineer at Google, and Andrew Vanderburg, a postdoctoral fellow …

  1. frank ly

    Naming Convention

    Does anyone know why Kepler-90a isn't used for the first planet?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Naming Convention

      Possibly because it already exists.

      Kepler BGP-90A

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. frank ly
        Thumb Up

        Re: Naming Convention

        The universe is complicated!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Naming Convention

      The star is Kepler-90a.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge

    Feeling Lucky

    GooooooOOgle

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    Note it's only possible because the data sets exist to begin with.

    Because someone put the observatory in orbit.

    ML can do amazing things if it's been given the data in the first place.

    An interesting question would be is there any model for the distribution of the numbers of planets within a solar system (say for the class and number of suns) or across multiple systems (do you expect more planets in a solar system closer to the centre of a galaxy than the periphery, or vice versa?)

    Obviously then you compare observations with theory.

  4. Dr Who

    We could still be the biggest system you bastards.

    Cheers,

    Pluto.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. VinceH

        Hey, if Uranus can be different with its axial tilt, why can't I be different with my inclination to the ecliptic?

        IT'S NOT FAIR!

        --Pluto

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Jedit Silver badge
          FAIL

          "Hey, if Uranus can be different with its axial tilt"

          You were told already, the solar system got Uranus down on the ecliptic.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Maths helps boffins"...

    Do I really need "AI" in the title?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    something for the star trek fan

    Interesting but at a 5000 light year round trip we could hurl abusive messages at them confident we would never live to hear the reply

  7. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    let's hope...

    ...that our B-Ark doesn't pass their B-Ark on the way.

  8. johnnyblaze

    The sum of all this is, despite all these advanced space telescopes, AI models and people with brains the size of small planets, is that we don't know jack sh*t in reality. Yep, we know so little about what's really out there, that even in 50 years, we'll consider the ideas of today like something from the dark ages. The real funny thing is, we consider ourselves and advanced species! Maybe we are when compared to amoeba's, but I'm sure there are civilisations out there now that make us look like single-cell organisms.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Coat

      But at least most of us ...

      don't think digital watches are a pretty neat idea

      Doffs hat (black fedora, once more) to the late, great Douglas Adams

      1. DropBear
        Devil

        Re: But at least most of us ...

        Well, Adams or not, some of us do - when you have something as mundane as a timepiece on you wrist that casually just happens to literally bend light just so it can tell you the time of the day (for years on end, without needing any assistance from you like, say, winding it daily) I can't help but suspect anyone unimpressed is perhaps just the tiniest bit over-jaded...

  9. Alistair
    Windows

    "You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer.”"

    I have to wonder -- this comment, or variations on it, are applied to several of the more complex systems that have been mapped. Perhaps the math could use some tweaking somewhere? bah. I'm not an astrophysicist. I just wish I was.

  10. Tom Paine

    Same number of planets?

    Fine, but does it have the same number of commentards? I bet we've got more trolls. And BETTER trolls, come to that. Terra 4 life!

    1. Kiwi
      Trollface

      Re: Same number of planets?

      Fine, but does it have the same number of commentards? I bet we've got more trolls. And BETTER trolls, come to that. Terra 4 life!

      And the BIGLIEST and ORANGELIEST trolls to boot! :)

  11. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Terminator

    AI finds new planet?

    I suspect a plot on the part of the machines to convince us to all jump on a spaceship and leave earth to them.

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