Researchers Build First AI Tool to Discover Supernovas

2023 · VOA Learning English

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Transcript

1. Scientists say they have built an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can successfully identify and confirm supernovas.

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2. A supernova is an “extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a star,” the American space agency NASA reports

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3. The explosion takes place at the end of a star’s life. The current process for discovering supernovas usually involves both machines and people.

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4. Telescopes repeatedly collect images of the night sky and compare these images to identify differences in observed objects.

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5. These differences can suggest the presence of supernovas. Robotic telescopes can present a list of possible supernovas to human scientists.

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6. This data is then examined by human scientists whose job it is to identify and confirm supernova candidates.

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7. Now, for the first time, researchers say they have successfully used an AI tool to complete all steps in this process.

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8. An international team of scientists developed the AI-based system. Researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois led the team.

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9. The team’s chief was Adam Miller, an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern.

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10. Miller said his team recently informed the international astronomical community of its success with the new AI system.

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11. The tool is called the Bright Transient Survey Bot, or BTSbot.

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12. The robot was used to find, identify and classify a supernova for the first time, Miller said.

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13. He noted that researchers had spent more than 2,000 hours over the past six years looking at telescope data in order to find and classify supernova

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14. “For the first time ever, a series of robots and AI algorithms has observed, then identified, then communicated with another telescope to finally confirm the

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15. discovery of a supernova,” Miller said. The researchers say the new system can take over much of the work humans now do looking for and classifying supernovas.

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16. This can free up scientists to do more in-depth examinations of the supernovas themselves and the reasons they were created.

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17. In order to confirm a supernova, scientists have to examine its spectrum.

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18. The spectrum represents the object’s dispersed light, which shows elements that were present during the explosion of a supernova.

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19. The study of supernovas has high scientific value because it can help astronomers learn more about the universe and how it began.

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20. For example, NASA says scientists have learned a lot about the behaviors and chemical processes of stars from supernovas.

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21. Miller said the new tool can help researchers analyze their observations and develop new hypotheses to explain why the supernova explosions happened.

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22. Nabeel Rehemtulla co-led the research and development of the BTSbot. He said the tool greatly “streamlines large studies of supernovas.”

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23. This helps scientists better understand the life cycles of stars and helps to identify elements supernovas create, such as carbon, iron and gold,

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24. The research team said testing of the BTSbot involved looking at a newly discovered supernova candidate called SN2023tyk.

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25. The AI tool identified the supernova on October 5.

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26. After the identification, the BTSbot requested additional data on its own from the California-based Palomar Observatory.

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27. Then, another telescope, known as the SED Machine, performed its own “in-depth observations” to get information on the object’s spectrum.

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28. The SED Machine then sent the spectrum data to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

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29. Caltech uses an AI algorithm to classify the kind of supernova.

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30. This can either be a thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf or the collapse of a star’s center, or core.

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31. The algorithm classified the supernova a Type 1a, a kind of star explosion in which a white dwarf in a star system fully explodes.

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32. Rehemtulla said the success of the BTSbot will ease supernova identifications, while freeing up human scientists to do more detailed study of the newly

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33. discovered objects. “The beauty of it is that, once everything is turned on and working properly, we don’t actually do anything,” Rehemtulla noted.

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34. “We go to sleep at night, and, in the morning, we see that BTSbot, and these other AIs, unwaveringly do their jobs.” I’m Bryan Lynn.

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