Detection accuracy reaches 99.8%! Using AI to discover the "probe" that witnesses the history of the universe?

When people look up at the starry sky, the distant starlight has actually traveled through billions of years of time and space, telling ancient stories. As a key probe of cold gas clouds in early galaxies, neutral carbon absorption lines are like witnesses of the history of the universe. Their existence provides a window for people to peek into the mysteries of the stars.

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In the process of stellar evolution, the materials released by stellar explosions contain rich chemical elements. These elements undergo nuclear fusion reactions inside the stars and diffuse into the surrounding space with the explosions. Among them, interstellar dust including carbon, oxygen, silicon and other elements also accumulates in the interstellar medium with the diffusion of the explosions, which not only provides an important material basis for the formation of new stars and planetary systems, but also plays a key role in the cooling and condensation of the interstellar medium.

Studies have shown that in different interstellar media, the absorption lines of neutral atomic carbon (CI) at wavelengths of 1560 and 1656 can be used to detect the abundance of cold gas, thereby revealing the formation of molecular clouds, interstellar dust, and stars. However, the current sample size of quasar spectra containing CI absorption lines is too small to be a powerful tool for understanding the overall chemical abundance evolution of the early universe and the evolution of galaxies.

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Recently, an international team led by Ge Jian, a researcher at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used deep learning methods to search for neutral carbon absorption lines (C Ⅰ absorption lines) in the data released by the Sloan Sky Survey Phase III, unveiling the mystery of the composition of cold gas clouds in early galaxies in the universe, and discovered 107 examples of neutral carbon absorption lines in the early universe. This discovery not only refreshes people's understanding of the evolution of early galaxies in the universe, but also proves the great potential of artificial intelligence in astronomical research. The relevant research results have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

AI applications in the field of astronomy are helping humans reach the stars and the sea.

In fact, Professor Ge Jian’s latest research has only uncovered the tip of the iceberg of AI technology applications in astronomy. As astronomy continues to develop, the challenges people face are becoming increasingly complex, from massive data management to precise navigation of deep space exploration to detailed research on distant galaxies, all of which require solutions that go beyond traditional methods.

The introduction of AI technology can not only process and analyze huge data sets generated by astronomical observations, but also play a key role in pattern recognition, predictive modeling and automated observations, greatly expanding the boundaries of our understanding of the universe.

In the past few years, researchers have begun to use AI to understand the universe more and more. In 2022, computer scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NVIDIA, and IBM, combined AI and supercomputers to process a month's worth of data in less than 7 minutes, while also identifying four gravitational wave signals generated by black hole mergers.

In 2023, Musk officially founded xAI, with the goal of understanding the true nature of the universe. Musk once said in an interview, "In a sense, an artificial intelligence that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to exterminate humans, because we are an interesting part of the universe." In May of this year, xAI received more than $6 billion in Series B financing, which also made the valuation of this company, which was established less than 10 months ago, reach about $18 billion.

In April 2024, the Artificial Intelligence Working Group of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a new generation of astronomical big model "Xingyu 3.0", which was built based on the Tongyi Qianwen open source model and has been successfully connected to the Mini Sitian telescope array of the Xinglong Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory. This is a classic example of the implementation of big models in the scientific field and the first application of big models in the field of astronomical observation.

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In the vast universe, the unknown seems to always outweigh the known, but AI exploration has already begun to show its prowess. We have reason to believe that as technology continues to mature, AI will reveal more mysteries about the universe in the future, help humans understand the universe we live in more deeply, and lead us to the stars.