[Steve_Seattle]

"A planet that may be Earth-like — but too hot for life as we know it — has been discovered orbiting a nearby star. The discovery of the planet, with an estimated radius about twice that of Earth, was announced today at the National Science Foundation."

" . . . too hot for life as we know it . . . with an estimated radius about twice that of earth . . . "

Doesn't sound very "Earth-like" to me.

[Squawk 8888]

Doesn't sound very "Earth-like" to me.

By their standards it's almost a carbon copy. If it's solid, has an atmosphere and isn't hot enough to melt most metals it's pretty close. I blame bad reporting for the impressing they convey, because to a layman "earth like" means survivable without a spacesuit and the closest thing we have to that is Mars.