An
astrophysics student at The Australian National University (ANU) has
turned to artificial intelligence to help her to see into the hearts
of galaxies
Astronomers
can interpret the spectra of these messy galaxies to distinguish
between light from stars forming, matter falling into black holes,
and supersonic galactic winds, but it is a painstaking process.
Enormous
numbers of galaxy spectra are being measured by robotic telescopes
such as the ANU 2.3 metre and the Anglo-Australian Telescope and so
Ms Hampton's automation of the analysis process with artificial
neural networks is a welcome success after a number of approaches
failed.
Artificial
Neural Networks are a family of computer programs inspired by the
brain that work as an interconnected set of individual processors,
similar to neurons. Unlike traditional rule-based computer programs,
they are adaptive and capable of learning.
Ms
Hampton made her computer program to analyse galaxies using about
4,000 spectra that had been analysed previously by astrophysicists.
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