Using machine learning to explore the cosmos

Recently I wrote about an interesting new project that's helping to deepen our understanding of the cosmos. A team from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are working on a prototype of an army of 5,000 robots that can head out into the galaxy. The machines, which are known as ProtoDESI, come in'platoons' of 10 robots and are designed to help us enhance the accuracy of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI is intended to provide a 3D map of the universe and allow scientists to further explore things like dark matter. A second team, from University College London, are using machine learning techniques in their search for habitable worlds.