back to article Brr, feeling cold? Galaxy is home to plenty of WARMER Earth twins

Boffins believe terrestrial planets orbiting Sun-like stars in the galaxy are probably more hospitable to life than Earth, thanks to their balmy subsurface temperatures. The plate crust under the Atlantic Ocean Tectonic plates meet under the Atlantic Ocean From the stars found by the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity …

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  1. hplasm
    Devil

    Aha-

    The more fossil fuels we use, the greater the percentage of unused radioactives in our crust; thus the climate warms!!

    discuss...

    1. David Pollard
      Boffin

      Re: Aha-

      Wikipedia gives the energy density of U235 as 79,500,000 MJ/kg, whereas coal comes in at a measly 24 MJ/kg. Coal contains a few hundred parts per million of uranium, and also thorium. Even allowing for the inefficiency of present day reactors where the U238 component isn't used, coal burning not only extracts from the crust more uranium per unit energy than nuclear power stations use, it also spreads it around a very much more.

      There is an argument that it would be better than burning it to extract the uranium from coal to fuel reactors and then bury the coal back in the ground,

    2. Luther Blissett

      Re: Aha-

      And the energy density of a unit eco-lune is...? Not that it matters much when there are so many available. A finite resource? Of course. One can never predict (oops, 'project') when the next bunch of incendiaries will turn up, only that the Creator seems to have guaranteed there always will be some for the rest of us to burn.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Great but...

      When we finally get there we find that there are eyeball melting microbes in the soil, but hey that would worry us too much, it'll be the flesh eating 20' long razor beaked creature that enjoys crunching skulls and eating brains that will be more problematic.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Great but...

        Not to mention the factor 1000,000 sun cream we will need to stop our skin peeling away......

  2. Richard Wharram

    All hail...

    ...our new underground, microbial overlords !!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All hail...

      Actually, "underlords".

  3. FartingHippo
    Pint

    Now I get it!!

    The reason we've never seen aliens is that, instead of building interstellar craft utilising esoteric drive technology, they're all chillin' on the beach with an ice cold alien beer.

    Fair play, alien dudes, fair play.

    1. Jad
      Thumb Up

      Re: Now I get it!!

      not necessarily, but it does explain why they don't want to visit this planet since by their standards it probably wouldn't be hospitable/habitable.

      1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: Now I get it!!

        But the downside to that is, it means we're the "tougher" species. And we all know what happens here on Earth when a tougher group of humans meets a less-tough group of humans. Imagine that wonderful aspect of our bad-ass human nature spread across the galaxy...

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: ice cold alien beer.

      Bastard. Now I'm thirsty, and it's only Wednesday.

  4. Zaphod.Beeblebrox
    Trollface

    So then...

    Global warming must be a good thing, right?

    1. Quxy
      Alien

      Yes, global warming is a good thing.

      Just not for humans.

  5. Petr0lhead

    Holiday destination?

    So in future years when FTL travel has been invented, we can jet off to these balmy worlds for our holidays?

    Wouldn't 2.5 time the amount of radioactive elements in the ground make this a possibly hazardous vacation location?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Holiday destination?

      It would certainly raise interesting questions about the rate of genetic mutation within species living on those worlds.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Holiday destination?

        2.5x the amount of radioactive elements is nothing. There is a far greater variation in natural radiation on Earth now and the people living in the highest radiation areas are fine.

        The rate of mutations might be a bit higher, but that could be a good thing - evolution will work more quickly. They may have already invented warp drive, visited here, probed us, and decided Earth is too damn chilly and has fewer scenic spots from which to watch erupting volcanoes do their thing.

  6. Lloyd
    Alien

    Hmmm

    Do any of them orbit "Red" suns? Just wondering if they're populated by primary coloured spandex clad poster boys?

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: Hmmm

      LHS 2520 (AKA Rao)?

  7. Chemist

    Lamuella

    Seem to remember this planet had lots going for it. Interesting variations of day, month, year length that led to an extra hour in bed every day etc. Good food although slightly repetitive and a great white knuckle ride that went to a great bar that had the best singer in the known universe.

    Thanks Douglas,

  8. Len Goddard

    tectonic activity

    Maybe we should stay very quiet in case they come here to get away from the volcanos.

  9. Katie Saucey
    Go

    Hahahaha

    So long suckers!

  10. Kebabbert

    First discovery of planets in other solar systems

    The scientist who discovered the first planet in another solar system should get the Noble prize in physics, I think. What do you think? This is a great discovery. Throughout the history mankind has always wondered if there are other planets, and now we know.

    The next question that needs to be solved is "are there life on other planets?"

  11. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Like exoplanet news?

    There's an app for that:

    "exoplanets"

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exoplanet/id327702034?mt=8

    (No affiliation)

  12. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Extend the habitable zone?

    Does this make habitable planets more likely? If the planet is more (or less) innately warm than Earth, then surely it just *moves* the habitable zone further (or closer) to its parent star rather than extending it.

  13. kabuki.usb

    There is no life out there,if your lonely get married,and stop smoking the wakey backey.

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