Google AI, Kepler spacecraft find first 8-planet system outside of our own

Before a Google machine learning program discovered an eighth planet in an exoplanet system using NASA spacecraft observations, the only other known system with as many planets was our own. Kepler has been scanning for planet systems beyond our solar system since 2009 and has made countless discoveries of planets orbiting stars, but so far none of those systems have contained as many planets as our own. That changed recently with the help of a Google AI program that found an an eighth planet orbiting the sun-like star Kepler 90, NASA scentists announced Thursday. Like Earth, this new planet, Kepler-90i, is the third rock from its sun. But it's much closer to its sun -- orbiting in just 14 days -- and therefore is a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 Celsius) at the surface. In fact, all eight planets are scrunched up around this star, orbiting closer than Earth does to our sun.