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Researchers Use AI To Find Astronomical Anomalies Buried In Archives

These six galaxies were among the almost 1,400 anomalous objects buried in the Hubble Legacy Archive. Researchers used AI tools to comb through the vast archive and detect anomalous objects. The discovered objects include a ring-shaped galaxy, a bipolar galaxy, a group of merging galaxies, and three galaxies with warped arcs created by gravitational lensing. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. O’Ryan, P. Gómez (European Space Agency), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

AI faces strong skepticism due to its potential for misuse, its drain on resources, and even its potential dumbing down of students. But new results illustrate its uses. A team of astronomers have used a new AI-assisted method to search for rare astronomical objects in the Hubble Legacy Archive. The team sifted through nearly 100 million image cutouts in just two and a half days, uncovering nearly 1400 anomalous objects, more than 800 of which had never been documented before.



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