NASA Kepler space telescope annoucement and live feeds 12.14.17 1pm est

I guess no disclosure since Tom Delonge isn't on the list.


However, it should be interesting none the less.

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 14, to announce the latest discovery made by its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analyzing Kepler data.


The briefing participants are:

Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Christopher Shallue , senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View, California

Andrew Vanderburg , astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin

Jessie Dotson , Kepler project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley

Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at:

www.nasa.gov...

LiveLink Once it starts

Reddit is going to hold a AMA after the teleconference

3 p.m.: After the teleconference, join us for an AMA on Reddit's r/science. Send your questions for planet hunters from NASA's Kepler mission, Google AI and The University of Texas, Austin.

www.reddit.com...

a reply to: interupt42

I'm hoping for an Earth twin not to far away , hopefully NASA will give us a Christmas present.

a reply to: gortex

Also looking to hear more about the machine learning aspects of the discovery.

An 8th planet in another star system....the scientist said it's the first star to have been found with as many planets orbiting it as in our solar system.

For those people who think that the government is doing a "gradual disclosure" thing to work up to telling us that ETs exist, I guess this would fit that scenario.

(I do not think there is any gradual disclosure scenario going on- just wanted to put that out there, as that's what popped into my head as I was listening)

Machine learning is closely related to (and often overlaps with) computational statistics, which also focuses on prediction-making through the use of computers. It has strong ties to mathematical optimization, which delivers methods, theory and application domains to the field. Machine learning is sometimes conflated with data mining,[8] where the latter subfield focuses more on exploratory data analysis and is known as unsupervised learning.[5]:vii[9] Machine learning can also be unsupervised[10] and be used to learn and establish baseline behavioral profiles for various entities[11] and then used to find meaningful anomalies.

Within the field of data analytics, machine learning is a method used to devise complex models and algorithms that lend themselves to prediction; in commercial use, this is known as predictive analytics. These analytical models allow researchers, data scientists, engineers, and analysts to "produce reliable, repeatable decisions and results" and uncover "hidden insights" through learning from historical relationships and trends in the data.

Wikipedia: Machine learning.

They are running Kepler data already captured through Google's machine learning algorithm and letting it "find" planets that may have been missed or over looked.

Word is they found a ninth planet around another solar system.

a reply to: interupt42

Interesting. Thanks.

Did they say what the Goldilocks zone was for that type of star? Planets being closer to their star, but the star being cooler would be different than ours.

a reply to: interupt42

They did not offer any "hard science" details in the press release.

Kepler's four-year data set, for example, consists of about 2 quadrillion possible orbits of planets. To verify the most promising signals of planets, automated tests, or sometimes human eyes, are typically used, but often the weakest signals are missed during this process. So, Shallue and Vanderburg thought there could be some more interesting exoplanet discoveries lurking in the data.

The two developed a neural network to search Kepler data for new planets. First, they trained the neural network to identify transiting exoplanets in a set of 15,000 previously vetted signals from the Kepler exoplanet catalog. Then, with the neural network having "learned" to detect the pattern of a transiting exoplanet, the researchers pointed their model at 670 star systems that already had multiple known planets and searched for weaker signals. Their assumption was that multiple-planet systems would be the best places to look for more exoplanets.

phys.org - Discovery of new planet reveals distant solar system to rival our own.

That is as much there is. No mention of the type of neural network used, how many neurons, how long it took to run the data, etc.

Too bad. That kind of info makes STEM interesting. Instead, it is dumbed down for us moo cows to say, "Golly! A new planet!!"

Read the paper! Link is on the NASA site. It has the real info (pdf): Identifying Exoplanets With Deep Learning: A Five Planet Resonant Chain Around Kepler-80 And An Eighth Planet Around Kepler-90.

Highlights: Fully connected, feed forward ANN, and a convoluted neural net. Their NN is not as good as the other automated software planet hunter in use. They plan on upgrading the software and running more data.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Cool thanks, I was a little let down by the lack of the details.

a reply to: interupt42

Seems to be that way when "major announcements" are made!

It 'twas none other than Phage that hinted (i.e., hit me upside the head with a rock!) to go read the actual paper itself to see the science!

It is still a cool find! One day they will turn one lose on the mountains of science data we've collected on all subjects. That might be the day to kill Skynet!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: interupt42

Seems to be that way when "major announcements" are made!

In NASA's defense, they never said this would be a "Major Announcement". They rarely call these semi-regular media briefings "Major Announcements", and are instead usually use very matter-of-fact language, as they did in this case.

Here's what they did say when they scheduled this media conference:

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 14, to announce the latest discovery made by its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analyzing Kepler data.

The briefing participants are:

Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Christopher Shallue , senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View, California

Andrew Vanderburg , astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin

Jessie Dotson , Kepler project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley

Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at:

www.nasa.gov...

Our Pluto would take 248 years to show up in the Kepler data if the data was being collected by aliens.
Maybe there is a limit of 17 planets per solar system for some reason?
We might have to wait 500 years for a detectable transit though.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

You are correct. I did not really explain myself too well.

newsweek - KEPLER MISSION: NASA TO REVEAL AI BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVERY—WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM GOOGLE. (Their all caps headline)

Then you have an announcement of the upcoming announcement which sets off "aliens!". The last announcement of an announcement set ATS on three different threads!

That is what I was complaining about. Hype and speculation over an announcement to be held on [date in the future].

a reply to: interupt42


What a dud of an announcement

originally posted by: norhoc
a reply to: interupt42


What a dud of an announcement

Yeah , it sounded more like a sales pitch for Google machine learning and the AI hype.