NASA’s Kepler probe uses Google AI for latest discovery

‘Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analysing Kepler data’

NASA will announce the discovery made by Kepler on December 14. (iStock)

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has made its latest discovery using Google's machine learning, the space agency said.

"The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analysing Kepler data," NASA officials said.

Kepler has gazed at more than 150,000 stars and continues to transmit back data that leads to important discoveries of celestial objects in our galaxy, including first-time observations of planets outside our solar system.

NASA is set to reveal the discovery made by Kepler, which has been looking for alien worlds since 2009, on December 14.

When Kepler launched in March 2009, scientists did not know how common planets were beyond our solar system, according to NASA. Thanks to Kepler's treasure trove of discoveries, astronomers now believe there may be at least one planet orbiting every star in the sky, the US space agency said.

Kepler completed its prime mission in 2012 and went on to collect data for an additional year in an extended mission.

In 2014, the spacecraft began a new extended mission called K2, which continues the search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, while introducing new research opportunities to study young stars, supernovae and other cosmic phenomena.