In all, more than 3,560 exoplanets have been confirmed to date - two-thirds of them spotted by the 2009-launched Kepler - with another approximately 4,500 candidates awaiting verification.8 trillion miles. They essentially trained a computer to identify exoplanets based on Kepler&water bottling machine Manufacturers39;s observations in changing stellar brightness - the subtle, fleeting dip in a star's brightness when a planet passes in front of it."It certainly will not replace them at all," he assured reporters.

It focuses on weak planetary signals - so feeble and numerous it would take humans ages to examine.The Kepler-90 system also could have a ninth planet or more, according to the researchers.This is the only eight-planet solar system found like ours - so far - tying for the most planets observed around a single star.It will be up to more advanced telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope targeted for launch in 2019, to study the atmospheres of these distant worlds and sniff out any traces of possible life, Vanderburg noted.Besides identifying Kepler-90i, the machine-learning program also confirmed an exoplanet missed by astronomers in yet another solar system: Kepler-80g, the sixth planet in that particular solar system.

The Kepler-90 system also could have a ninth planet or more, according to the researchers. Some astronomers, however, suspect there could be a large ninth planet out there: an elusive Planet X the size of Neptune but much farther out. Shallue sees this as a tool to help astronomers have more impact and increase their productivity.Shallue and Vanderburg plan to keep up the hunt, using the program to scour the 150,000-plus stars observed by Kepler."

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