NASA to make major announcement Thursday, will reveal new Kepler discovery
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope 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. (Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel)
NASA has announced it will make an announcement surrounding a new discovery from its Kepler mission, a space telescope used to find exoplanets.
The announcement, set for 1 p.m. EST on Dec. 14, will showcase a new discovery using machine learning techniques from Google. "Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analyzing Kepler data," NASA said in the press release.
SUPER EARTH IS DISCOVERED AND IT HAS PERFECT CONDITIONS FOR ALIENS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Experts taking part in the briefing include:
Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Christopher Shallue, senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View, California
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and NASA Sagan postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas, Austin and Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley
The press conference will also be streamed lived on NASA's website.
Kepler launched in March 2009 at a time when scientists and NASA researchers did not know how common planets were beyond our solar system. Since the original mission was completed in 2012, Kepler confirmed 2,337 exoplanets and 4,496 potential candidates.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In 2014, Kepler started on a new mission, known as K2, to look for exoplanets and introduce "new research opportunities to study young stars, supernovae and other cosmic phenomena."
SCORCHING-HOT ALIEN PLANET MAY HAVE EARTH-LIKE ATMOSPHERE
In 2015, the Kepler mission discovered Kepler-452b, the first Earth-sized planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this report. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia