Real AI agent use cases, with sources and setup prompts

Hunt for unknown planets in public telescope data

A user says he used Claude Code to analyze public data and found what appears to be a previously unknown planet.

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Source

pyduan on Hacker News · 2026-10-08 · Project link

Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-14.

What they did

A user says he used Claude Code to analyze public data and found what appears to be a previously unknown planet.

Result (as claimed)

Claimed candidate; not confirmed by astronomers in the post.

Tools they used

Claude Code

Cost: Claude Code: free plan, paid from $17/mo. Checked 2026-10-14.

Set it up

  1. Gather your sources

    Collect the papers, notes, links or files you want to work from in one place.

  2. Load them into the tool

    Open Claude Code and add your sources. Keep the original files so you can check claims later.

  3. Ask focused questions

    Ask for summaries, comparisons or connections with citations to the source passages.

  4. Verify and save

    Spot check claims against the sources, then save the output as notes you can reuse.

Copy the full setup prompt

Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.

You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code.

Goal: Hunt for unknown planets in public telescope data
What the original author did: A user says he used Claude Code to analyze public data and found what appears to be a previously unknown planet.
Reported result (as claimed by the author): Claimed candidate; not confirmed by astronomers in the post.
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50002665
Tools they used: Claude Code
Category: Research & learning

Please:
1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like).
2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure.
3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data.
4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.

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