RE: Earths difficult?

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Tue Jan 28 2003 - 20:50:50 MST


From: Robert J. Bradbury [mailto:bradbury@aeiveos.com]
> Odds against Earth-like planets
>
> Seems to be a reasonably balanced perspective from the BBC.
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2701977.stm
>
> There are however still "selection effects" at work

Indeed, this work is dominated by selection effects. Our planet
detection technology is best at detecting systems that have
supermassive planets orbiting extremely close to their stars. Those
types of systems are inherently incompatible with earth like planets.
This study is based on a tautology.

I'm disappointed with the BBC for their sloppy reporting on this.

mez



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