ExoMiner++

News: NASA has open sourced its AI system ExoMiner++ while analysing TESS data to support transparent, collaborative, and faster global exoplanet discovery.

About ExoMiner++

• ExoMiner++ is a deep learning–based artificial intelligence system used to identify exoplanets from space mission data.
• Developed by: It was developed by NASA.
• The main goals of the ExoMiner project are:
  • Perform classification of transit signals in Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data;
  • Create vetted catalogs of Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs) for Kepler and TESS runs for the exoplanet community.
  • Validate new exoplanets using Kepler and TESS data.
• Mechanism used: ExoMiner++ uses deep learning to study stellar light curves and detect small dips in brightness caused by planetary transits.
• Key features
  • Explainable AI (XAI): The open-source system allows researchers to study, audit, and understand the model’s working.
  • False Positive Mitigation: It distinguishes genuine planetary signals from eclipsing binary stars and astrophysical noise.
  • Efficiency: It flagged approximately 7,000 potential exoplanet candidates from TESS data, speeding up exoplanet discovery.
  • Open Science: NASA has open sourced ExoMiner++, enabling global collaboration and replication of results.

About ExoMiner

• ExoMiner is an open-source artificial intelligence software designed to analyse exoplanet data from space missions.
• Developed by: It was developed by a team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in 2021.
• The team later created ExoMiner++, trained using Kepler and TESS data.