First Earthlike Exoplanet Found

[doc_bean]

That is really neat, but being 13 times closer to it's radiatant star is bound to make for some radioactive environments. Not to mention, if there is sentient life there, evolving under 2g means they could kick our ass!

It would depend on the radiation the star sends out (don't know much about that) and the amount of radiation that atmosphere can block. Due to it's higher gravitational pull it would have a thicker atmosphere than earth (I assume) and perhaps that could mean it coudl block out more radiation ?

However, this planet in itself might not be so important, but the following conclusion is:

The real importance is not so much the discovery of this planet itself, but the fact that it shows that Earth-like planets are probably extremely common in the Universe.

There are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone and many astronomers believe most of these stars have planets.

The fact that almost as soon as we have built a telescope capable of detecting small, earth-like worlds, one turns up right on our cosmic doorstep, shows that statistically, there are probably billions of earths out there.

Even if only 10 billion stars are in a 'good' segment of the galaxy of the galaxy, if only one in ten of those have planets, if only one in ten of those have earth like planets and if only one in ten of those are capable of sustaining life (for whatever other reason the others can't) we're still looking at 10 million possible earths...

[edyzmedieval]

I can see my alien relatives!!! Yeeey! Haven't seen them since the Earth was born!

[Ja'chyra]

The Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life

Seems to be a whole load of assumptions and no real evidence of what they are claiming.

There is no possible way humans could ever travel at light speed

and may be covered with large amounts of water - necessary for life to evolve -

I like how we base our assumptions on our limited knowledge and say that it must be so.