An 8th planet is found orbiting a distant star, with AI's help

For the project, the computer looked at a small chunk of data gathered by Kepler from 2009 to 2013

With eight planets whirling around its sun, our solar system has held the galactic title for having the most known planets of any star system in the Milky Way.

But on Thursday NASA announced the discovery of a new exoplanet orbiting a distant star some 2,500 light years away from here called Kepler 90, bringing that system’s total to eight planets as well. The new planet, known as Kepler-90i, is rocky and hot. It orbits its star about once every 14 days.

The finding was made using data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, a planet hunter that has spotted more than