"When it comes to exoplanet speculations, we’re still in the era when data are few and dominated by selection effect, which is why we began by finding so many ‘hot Jupiters’ — such planets seem made to order for relatively short-term radial velocity detections. It’s a golden age for speculation, with the promise of new instrumentation and a boatload of information from missions like Kepler and CoRoT to be delivered within a few years. What an extraordinary time to be doing exoplanetary science.
The big questions can’t be answered yet, but it shouldn’t be long before we have an inkling about what kind of stars are most likely to produce terrestrial planets. And maybe a qualification is in order. M-dwarfs are so common in our galaxy — some estimates run to seventy percent of all stars and up — that finding habitable worlds around them would hugely increase the possible venues for life. But is there any way we could call planets around M-dwarfs ‘Earth-like?’ Maybe in terms of temperature in a specific habitable zone on the surface, but little else applies. [...]"
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