[ETL]

I wonder if they actually did do a spectral analysis to determine the chemical makeup of the planet's atmosphere. That would be of significant importance in terms of knowing what type of a planet it is.

From the article:

"In this method, a telescope gazes at a star as a planet circles behind it. When the planet disappears from view, the light from the star system dips ever so slightly, but enough that astronomers can determine how much light came from the planet itself. This information reveals the temperature of a planet, and, in some cases, its atmospheric components."

[cripplecreek]

So far its still pretty tough to spot an earth similar mass rocky planet in the habitable zone.

If someone were looking for earth by the transit method they would have to be in line with us, spot the 12 hour transit, wait 365 days and spot the transit again.

For all the large and close orbit planets we’ve found, there must be thousands more in our galactic neighborhood that we can’t see yet. That’s not counting potentially habitable moons orbiting large planets.