The language of exoplanet ranking metrics needs to change

• Published in: Nature astronomy Vol. 1; no. 2
• Main Authors: Tasker, Elizabeth, Tan, Joshua, Heng, Kevin, Kane, Stephen, Spiegel, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.02.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/33/445/862; 706/648; Astronomy; Astrophysics; Astrophysics and Cosmology; comment; Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy

We have found many Earth-sized worlds but we have no way of determining if their surfaces are Earth-like. This makes it impossible to quantitatively compare habitability, and pretending we can risks damaging the field.