Hubble’s new-found exo-planet has the exo-life Holy Grail of room-temp Goldie-Locks-zone room-temp exo-water? Yes. But….

First of all, let’s not get all “Whoa! It’s Earth’s long-lost twin sister!” and “Near-Earth discovered!” and “Could there be life?! I think I see someone WAVING!” and other over-eager hyperventilating. This isn’t Terra v.2.0.

Not Earth-y, huh? All right. Then what’s the big nerd-splosion about?

As the highly intelligent bipeds over at the The Verge inform us, it’s a mini-Neptune, OK? And yes, it apparently has some liquid water in its upper atmosphere. But that’s about it at this point. Further down, before you hit the most-likely rocky core? Murderous pressure and BBQ-level heat and not friendly to living stuff. So, sorry. But still, it’s a landmark discovery in its own sense, ie, Hubble’s amazing ability to resolve the water molecules in the atmosphere during the planet’s transit across its dwarf star-sun. So, cheers for that, science. Well done! Now settle down, class.

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