[John W]

“While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world....”

Yes and I thought in each of those now dozen or more cases the accompanying news story said they’d found an alien Earth. Guess maybe I misread the news at the time.

[cripplecreek]

Yes and I thought in each of those now dozen or more cases the accompanying news story said they’d found an alien Earth. Guess maybe I misread the news at the time.

Those who write the stories generally aren't the scientists. If a scientist uses the term earthlike, he uses it as a generality and anyone with a more than passing interest in science knows that "earthlike" means a rocky planet that could be anything from Mercury to Mars.