How Is Artificial Intelligence Transforming Astronomy?

Astronomers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a new way to investigate the universe. Each day, modern telescopes gather enormous amounts of data about galaxies and distant stars as well as all the signals received from space. Because the data collected exceeds what scientists can analyze with their existing techniques, AI is being utilized to analyze the massive amounts of data collected. AI will assist scientists in identifying patterns, sorting through large amounts of data, and identifying objects/phenomena in a faster, easier, and more efficient way than performing these tasks by hand or with traditional means. This paper will analyze and describe how the incorporation of AI into modern-day astronomy will impact how astronomers make discoveries. The introductory section will provide a basic understanding of AI and ML as well as explain how these technologies will enable astronomers to make discoveries. There are four case studies that will be analyzed: (a) Exoplanets found with AI in Kepler-based data; (b) AI-assisted galaxy classification with Galaxy Zoo; (c) AI used for supernova detection with the Dark Energy Survey; and (d) AI detection of fast radio bursts using radio telescope data. The conclusion of the paper is that through the use of AI, researchers will be able to quickly process an unprecedented volume of data and find those objects/events that they would not have otherwise been able to find via traditional data processing methods. Similarly, AI systems are not inherently good and may make errors based on incomplete or biased datasets. Scientific verification of findings will continue to be performed by human researchers. Thus far, research has shown that AI has been valuable to astronomy; as larger amounts of data are collected via telescopes, AI will have greater influence in assisting scientists to investigate and understand our universe.