[MEGoody]

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.

So what exactly is it that makes it 'Earth-like'?

[Squawk 8888]

So what exactly is it that makes it 'Earth-like'?

The fact that it's made of rock. This is a problem of journalism- what a scientist would regard as earth-like (a really big chunk of rock) is not what most people would consider earth-like (where we could leave our spacesuits at home).