[Rummyfan]

Is it Talos IV?????

[Junior]

I would've said "Mercury-like." Besides, this thing is hugh (I'm series).

[beltfed308]

They estimated the surface temperature on the new planet at between 400 degrees and 750 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's earth like?

[RockinRight]

They've already found sentinent life:

[cripplecreek]

Just whipping around it's sun isn't it.

[shekkian]

It is orbiting a star called Gliese 876, 15 light years from Earth, with an orbit time of just 1.94 Earth days.

Wow!! This planet's really moving.

Imagine the mortgage rates on this real estate.

[NewMediaFan]

sounds like a good place for Dean's voter-outreach program

[lilylangtree]

If we only had a Stargate!

[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.

[Righty_McRight]

A planet that may be Earth-like — but too hot for life as we know it —

I claim this planet for Texas. We will hang out there during the summer.

[Da Bilge Troll]

I just can't believe that orbital period. It would have to be so close to the star that friction would quckly bring it down.

1.94 YEARS, maybe?

[Graybeard58]

with an orbit time of just 1.94 Earth days.

That sucker is movin'!

[Husker8877]

Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Mars) will be green with envy (greener).

[Tallguy]

Yeah, but the question is who will the enviro-whacko's blame this case of Global Warming on?

[GulliverSwift]

The planet is inhabited by nerdlings.

[cripplecreek]

I'm curious if the gravity of a planet is affected by it's density. I know our gas giants aren't very dense yet they have extremely strong gravitational fields. Or is mass more of a factor than density?

[Brett66]

It's a terrestrial planet, but it sure ain't earthlike.

[ArGee]

A planet that may be Earth-like — but too hot for life as we know it — has been discovered orbiting a nearby star.

Further investigations demonstrate that the planet is a remarkable parallel to earth. It also developed a human-like life form and developed politics similar to the United States. Unfortunately, on that planet, socialists gained the upper hand and drove all business into the ground. The people of the planet had to continue burning trees and cow dung, which lead to the state we find the planet in today.

Shalom.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Gliese 876 is a small, red star with about one-third the mass of the sun. The researchers said this is the smallest star around which planets have been discovered.

The usual problem with discovering 'small' extrasolar planets, is the wobble the they produce on their suns is too small to detect - but with the relatively small mass of Gliese 876, a smaller world would produce a greater wobble than we'll say that of a super giant, or even a star like our sun - I assume that's why they discovered a small world in this case.

[MikefromOhio]

they probably mean Earth-like because it ISN'T a gas giant....