All of the inhospitable worlds they have discovered strengthen my appreciation for Earth, right where it is.
I hate reading âimpossibleâ when discussing a scientific study. I think it perpetuates an ass backwards view of how science works. The first rule of studying science is that nature does whatever the hell it wantsâthe best we can do is try to coherently model it. If a model differs from an observation, then it just means that our model sucked. The observation is almost always right and we need to think harder if we want to pretend to understand something. And even worse, we may not be able to understand everything. We might only be able to figure out the easy stuff. The scientific method is sound, but it does not mean that nature cares that we want to study it.
Probably not caustic. I think âfricken hotâ is the technical term.
I read the title as a reference to a Doctor Who episode:
I misread the post on first read, and thought it said the planet was just 1.5 km from the sun. Impossible world indeed!
More than a few news reports last week described this as âEarthâs Twin.â Misleading headline bait.
When I was growing up Venus was occasionally described in kiddie science books as âEarthâs Twin.â Because . . . it is roughly the same diameter and mass?
The same criteria is being applied here. It is so darn misleading a term.
There are likely millions and millions of terrestrial planets with roughly the same diameter, mass, and composition as Earth. Some will be inferno worlds, some will ahve their atmospheres frozen on their surface. None will really be âEarthâs twin.â
When we find a world where a science reporter can walk around in shirt sleeves for an hour without burning to a crisp, freezing to death, or asphyxiating . . . then, I think weâll have a place we can call âEarthâs twin.â
Fraternal.
You may very well have to travel a particularly long way indeed:
Cosmologists such as professor Alexander Vilenkin from Tufts University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Max Tegmark suggest that if space is sufficiently large and uniform, or infinite as some theories suggest, and if quantum theory is true such that there is only a finite number of configurations within a finite volume possible, due to Heisenbergâs uncertainty principle, then identical instances of the history of Earthâs entire Hubble volume occur every so often, simply by chance. Tegmark calculates that our nearest so-called doppelgänger, is 1010150 meters away from us (a double exponential function larger than a googolplex).
Or wait a very long time.
By definition, if they found it, itâs not an impossible world.
I think they meant to say âImprobable Worldâ
Three orbits per day = vomit ride.
1.5 kilometers from the star is a little hard to believe, isnât it? Walking distance? Itâs 1.5 million kilometers. You might want to fix that.
Is this that planet that has corners and everyone lives according to the Bizarro-code?
You wonât notice, being fried and all.
Listen, bub, if 2-3 scientists donât understand something, itâs impossible, got it? Anything else is pixie dust.
Caustic? Really? âWhen I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less.â Ah, what a wonderful world we live in. In which we live. Whatever. See previous quote.
Yes! Iâm not the only one that misread the OP. 
Thatâs a relief!
I challenge you to walk it.
It can be done! http://www.solaswebdesign.net/images/jackhorkheimer4.jpg
