100 new alien worlds: Scientists find hidden haul in data from NASA exoplanet-hunting spacecraft

An illustration of an exoplanet next to a star. There's also a smaller world in the back. A boxout shows a spacecraft.

Astronomers have discovered over 100 new worlds beyond the solar system hiding in data collected by NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and it's thanks to artificial intelligence. The technique also identified a further 2,000 or so candidate extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, around half of which were hitherto undetected.

Considering that there are around 6,000 exoplanets currently in NASA's exoplanet catalog, confirming those candidate worlds would represent a major boost in our hunt for planets around other stars. The innovative new AI program behind this discovery is called RAVEN, and was developed by researchers at the University of Warwick in the U.K.