“Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star,” NASA said in a statement.

However, none of the planets are expected to be hospitable to life.

The eight-planet system — the largest known outside of ours — orbits a star called Kepler 90 some 2,545 light-years away.

“The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system,” said Andrew Vanderburg, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

“You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer.”

The newly identified planet, Kepler-90i, is a rocky planet like Earth, but orbits its star once every 14.4 days, meaning a full year there is the same as two weeks on Earth.

“Kepler-90i is not a place I’d like to go visit, though,” said Vanderburg.

“Its surface is likely far too hot.”

NASA calculated its average temperature at about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426 Celsius) — as hot as Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.

– Artificial intelligence –

Scientists found it by using machine learning from Google.

The process involved teaching a computer to scan a trove of 35,000 possible planetary signals collected from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope for search for signs of planetary transits.

Transits are the dimming of light when planets pass in front of a star.

The Kepler Space Telescope launched in 2009, and has scanned some 150,000 stars.

Astronomers have already confirmed the existence of some 2,500 far-away worlds using Kepler data.

“I became interested in applying neural networks to astronomy when I learned that the Kepler mission had collected so much data that it was impossible for scientists to examine it all manually,” said Christopher Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team.

“Instead scientists selected the strongest signals, which are the most likely to be actual planets, to receive the most attention.”

Shallue likened this process to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Machine learning really shines when there is too much data for humans to examine for themselves.”

More planets are expected to be found, because researchers plan to apply their neural network to Kepler’s full set of more than 150,000 stars.

“There is a lot of unexplored real estate in the Kepler 90 system,” said Vanderburg.

“It would almost be surprising to me if there weren’t any more planets in around that star.”

One day, artificial intelligence might even be used to search specifically for more Earth-like planets, which have proven difficult to pin down.

“For the first time since our solar system planets were discovered thousands of years ago, we know for sure that the solar system is not the sole record holder for the most planets, and we have just scratched the surface,” Vanderburg added.

“Maybe there are systems out there with so many planets that they make our eight-planet solar system seem ordinary.”

The findings are published in The Astronomical Journal.

Irma, the devastating storm, was the top trending topic globally when it came to news or searches at Google, according to rankings of top trending topics and people release on Wednesday by the California-based company.

Stories about cryptocurrency bitcoin were the second most keenly sought news, followed by coverage of the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, the crisis with North Korea and the solar eclipse.

Apple’s latest iPhone models ranked second and third overall in search, and topped the chart when it came to consumer electronics.

The fourth fiercest overall search trend was focused on TV host Matt Lauer, who was also the person who garnered the most interest at Google.

Matt Lauer’s two decade run as host of NBC’s morning show “Today” came to an abrupt end last month following harassment allegations by several colleagues, including one who claimed he locked her in his office and assaulted her.

Two others embroiled in sex harassment accusations, film producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey also made a top five list of people who prompted online queries this year.

Weinstein was until a few months ago a king of Hollywood whose golden touch bagged his productions 81 Oscars. That all changed in October, when he was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment.

Two-time Oscar winner Spacey, considered one of the finest actors of his generation, was accused in October of having harassed several young male actors.

The second-most sought after person at Google was Meghan Markle, an American actress recently engaged to marry Britain’s Prince Harry.

The third most Googled person this year was Italian television personality Nadia Toffa who raised alarm about a nuclear experiment that did not happen.

Netflix appeared to strike a chord with its original series “Stranger Things,” which ranked as the television show getting the most interest at Google.

And when it came to people getting their hands dirty offline, a “how to” category was topped by queries about making slime.

PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) last Friday unveiled the robot as part of the company’s collaboration with Prince of Songkla University’s Faculty of Engineering under the “PTTEP Love Sea Love Beach” project.

According a demonstration at Songkhla’s Samila Beach, the key advantages of the beach cleaning robot, which has been under development since last year, are:

+ Its ability to effectively scoop up and quickly separate rubbish from sand through a vibrating sieve;

+ Its small size, which enables collection of garbage around trees, wich is usually for tractor-pulled beach cleaners; and

+ Its use of a rechargeable battery.

Importantly, the robot can be built locally, saving import costs from having to import.

PTTEP also announced it would continue to support improvements to the robot’s capabilities before it enters full operation.

Vinit Hansamuit, senior vice president, technology and knowledge management division, PTTEP, said “The beach-cleaning robot is one of many green innovations that reflect PTTEP’s commitment to environmental sustainability through research and development collaborations with education institutions, supporting the education sector to create new technologies for practical application.”

Prince of Songkla University mechanical engineering lecterer Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie said: “Collaboration with PTTEP gives us the opportunity to develop innovation that address local problems and to augment the skills and practical experience of our students.”

The move comes just a month after Twitter rattled the twitterverse by doubling the limit for tweets in most languages to 280 characters, in a bid to draw in more users and boost engagement. It was the first time the character cap was raised since Twitter was founded.

“A few years ago we noticed people creatively stitching Tweets together to share more information or tell a longer story,” product manager Sasank Reddy said in a blog post.

“We saw this approach (which we call ‘threading’) as an innovative way to present a train of thought, made up of connected but individual elements.”

An “add another tweet” button is being added to the Twitter application, along with a “show this thread” label that can be clicked to see posts woven together by authors.

Threaded tweets will be published at the same time, but more posts can be added, according to Reddy.

“Launching tweetstorms/thread today,” Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted from the firm’s San Francisco headquarters.

Twitter posts about a topic, typically fired off in rapid succession by someone intent on writing more than allowed by the character limit, have been referred to as “tweetstorms.”

Many replies to Dorsey’s post called on Twitter to focus on dealing with extremists, trolls, and “bots” abusing the service instead of packaging tweets together.

“This will make some of the thoughtful longform posts on Twitter more accessible to a broader range of people. Good,” read a reply to Dorsey from a verified account of venture capitalist Chris Sacca, whose investments included Twitter.

“But not sure why it launched before you make more moves to reduce hate speech, ban Nazis, eliminate Russian trolls, and stop the spread of fake news.”

Threads will be rolled out in an update to Twitter in the coming weeks, according to Reddy.

For a large corporation with thousands of employees vested with them for decades, moving to the next level is truly a “big deal”. They need an engine that runs powerful and fast to uniformly drive all the constituent parts together toward a loftier goal. At Kaskikornbank (KBank), we have been preparing for this big step in our journey, and so established our KBank Digital Academy. We hoped it to would be a major force that drives everyone forward with a well-conceived, highly structured development roadmap and the strong intent to create a brighter future for KBank.

To become a world-class international institution |dedicated to our own digital transformation via human capital development, the KBank Digital Academy |co-designed several educational programmes with |expert partners to deliver modern content to help |leverage digital skills across our organisation.

Along our journey to the establishment of the KBank Digital Academy, we conducted several seminars to raise the digital awareness of KBank employees and enjoyed a high rate of participation at every session. We started with data analytics, which is an important key to corporate success because it gleans the “next best action” for business operations. The session resonated well with our employees. We noticed a highly vibrant mood among attendees starting with our very first session. It was a |perception that KBank was evolving into a more modern organisation with a promising future that seems more tangible than ever.

On a global scale, it has been proven that major changes must start at the top. Luckily, our KBank executive leadership has always supported this journey of transformation and so our second academy session featured KBank |president, Kattiya Indaravijaya, sharing how global |businesses like Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix work in a rapid changing environment using “design thinking” |concepts. She had attended a programme at the Stanford d. School (a hub for thinking on human-centred design) with top executives from around the world and shared her thoughts from that experience with all staff. Her narrative demonstrated that we really could move our bank; this is the core concept of our agenda.

The KBank Digital Academy on November 14 conducted an official kick-off event introducing our vision and opportunity to make a good impact on our organisation. We invited 10 “digital influencers” in Thailand to demonstrate how such an impact is created; they really impressed us. As said before, KBank Digital Academy is intended to pave the way for our staff to reach new |goals in digital banking. In order to run smoothly, we |categorised staff attendees into three target group levels and devised programmes of varying intensity and scope for each level.

At the first level, “Live” Digital, the target group is made up of all of our staff since they are regularly faced with changes to the way they work as well as their workplace settings. Basic digital capabilities need to be nurtured and become integral to their lives. Development coursework is provided to this group as public seminars and online courses that can reach all the participants.

At the second level, “Execute” Digital, the target group is those who will spearhead work through the KBank Digital Transformation team, as well as help staff working with digital products and services. Since they need to work in a really fast-paced environment, and they mostly learn on the job from their colleagues, KBank Digital Academy needs to assist them with complex skills specific to their tasks. Thus, the development tools we use with those working in such agile environments are on-demand courses accessed online and workshops with hands-on learning.

And at the highest group category, “Lead” Digital, attendees are workplace leaders and digital change agents. It’s undeniable that successful changes, as we can see from past examples, required strong visionary leadership. Therefore, we designed the Digital Leadership Program with content related to change management, decision-making using data and agile workplace |methodologies.

With this initial step, we expect to see the readiness of KBank staff greatly improved, along with a strong desire to learn. Our success would verify our choice of running KBank using “learning organisation” concepts. We have not only impacted our organisation internally, but also externally via the way the younger generation perceives us now.

In the process, we have revived our branding to now be seen as an employer of choice, a modern organisation that really cares about human capital development wherein everyone has a chance to learn and develop themselves, thereby learning to work more efficiently |in future workplaces.

Krit Jitjang is senior executive vice president, Kasikornbank.

Virtual reality or VR is becoming a vital technology for journalism and it is one of the newest trends in media.

“Through the perception of sight, sound, even smell, VR will cut us off from the current environment to get us into a simulated image,” said Francesca Panetta, VR editor of British newspaper The Guardian.

Panetta said that virtual reality journalism is in its infancy of developing a shared language. It will need to give audiences confidence in what they are offered as journalism, and it will need to maintain trust.

Experiencing a piece of VR journalism requires the “reader” to put a viewer over their eyes and listen through headphones. The more sealed off from other sights and sounds they are, the better the experience.

For this purpose, 87,000 Google Cardboard VR headsets with plastic lenses and a space to insert a mobile phone have been distributed in the UK. These are an affordable way to make accessible to many people.

Among The Guardian’s VR films, Panetta said, “The Party” propels the viewer into the world of an autistic teenage girl, and “Crime Scene” puts the user into the shoes of a trainee forensic officer trying to solve a murder. Panetta said that a range of experts on autism, and people with autism, were consulted for “The Party”.

The films can be viewed through The Guardian’s app, on Facebook and on YouTube.