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Artificial brain scans the galaxy for speeding stars
Cosmos ^ | 27 Jun, 2017 | Andrew Masterson

Posted on 06/27/2017 6:22:42 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Neural networks come to astronomy as a self-adapting algorithm digs through star maps to find rogue fast-moving stars, writes Andrew Masterson.

An artificial neural network capable of learning from its own observations is helping astronomers identify a rare type of star that might offer clues to both the formation of the Milky Way and the role of dark matter in governing its motion.

In research published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team led by Elena Maria Rossi from Leiden University in the Netherlands detail how the self-adapting algorithm is spotting rogue stars among millions mapped by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.

The stars in question are all travelling at much higher than usual speeds through the galaxy – a rare phenomenon identified only a decade ago. While most stars, including the Sun, move at about 220 kilometres per second – and those on the Milky Way’s outskirts clock only around 150 kilometres per second – these high-speed variants zoom along at two or three times the speed.

Until recently, only 20 such stars had been identified – all of them young and massive. It was acknowledged, however, that this was likely to be an artifact of the search methods used, so Rossi and her team set out to see if other types also sometimes went rogue.

“These hypervelocity stars are extremely important to study the over all structure of our Milky Way,” she says.

“These are stars that have travelled great distances through the galaxy but can be traced back to its core – an area so dense and obscured by interstellar gas and dust that it is normally very difficult to observe – so they yield crucial information about the gravitational field of the Milky Way from the centre to its outskirts.”

(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; neuralnetworks

1 posted on 06/27/2017 6:22:42 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Could these stars be in highly elliptical orbits around the black hole at the center of the milky way?


2 posted on 06/27/2017 6:24:02 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Starships. Literally. Spacecraft propelled by engines which generate a captive star for propulsion.


3 posted on 06/27/2017 6:45:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: MtnClimber

Quite possibly some of them could be, depending on how they became hypervelocity stars..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_kinematics#Hypervelocity_stars


4 posted on 06/27/2017 7:11:44 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: MtnClimber

Artificial brain just in time for Joe Biden to run in 2020.


5 posted on 06/27/2017 7:56:26 PM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: SERKIT
Artificial brain just in time for Joe Biden to run in 2020.

Artificial can cure only so much. When you are at 0% logical policies there can be no correction. Slow Joe is a serial liar on par with 0bama.

6 posted on 06/27/2017 8:06:06 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Maybe ‘Q’ can pull them over for speeding or maybe his son was playing marbles with the stars.


7 posted on 06/27/2017 8:34:17 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: MtnClimber

136.70 mph? Why, it wouldn’t qualify at the Indy 500.


8 posted on 06/27/2017 9:21:59 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: tumblindice

Oh. A second.
Never mind.


9 posted on 06/27/2017 9:24:13 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: tumblindice

136.70 mph per SECOND ...


10 posted on 06/28/2017 2:16:35 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: MtnClimber

An artificial brain? I believe there’s a waiting list for them....Liz SpeakingBull, Sir Edmund Hillary Clinton, Slo Joe Biden, Paul RINO....


11 posted on 06/28/2017 3:53:51 AM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is DEPLORABLE :-))
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