New Deep Learning Method Adds 301 Planets to Kepler's Total Count

"Unlike other exoplanet-detecting machine learning programs, ExoMiner isn't a black box – there is no mystery as to why it decides something is a planet or not," said Jon Jenkins, exoplanet scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "We can easily explain which features in the data lead ExoMiner to reject or confirm a planet." What is the difference between a confirmed and validated exoplanet? A planet is "confirmed," when different observation techniques reveal features that can only be explained by a planet. A planet is "validated" using statistics – meaning how likely or unlikely it is to be a planet based on the data.