University of Oxford: AI breakthrough helps astronomers spot cosmic events with just a handful of examples

A new study co-led by the University of Oxford and Google Cloud has shown how general-purpose AI can accurately classify real changes in the night sky - such as an exploding star, a black hole tearing apart a passing star, or a fast-moving asteroid - and explain its reasoning, without the need for complex training.

Published today in Nature Astronomy, the study by researchers from the University of Oxford, Google Cloud, and Radboud University demonstrates that a general-purpose large language model (LLM ) – in this case Google's Gemini - can be transformed into an expert astronomy assistant with minimal guidance.

Using just 15 example images and a simple set of instructions, Gemini learned to distinguish real cosmic events from imaging artefacts with approximately 93% accuracy. Crucially, the AI also provided a plain-English explanation for every classification - an important step towards making AI-driven science more transparent and trustworthy, and towards building accessible tools that don't require massive training datasets or deep expertise in AI programming.

'As someone without formal astronomy training, this research is incredibly exciting,' said Turan Bulmus, co-lead author from Google Cloud. 'It demonstrates how general-purpose LLMs can democratise scientific discovery, empowering anyone with curiosity to contribute meaningfully to fields they might not have a traditional background in. It's a testament to the power of accessible AI to break down barriers in scientific research.'

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