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The language of exoplanet ranking metrics needs to change

Nature Astronomy volume 1, Article number: 0042 (2017) Cite this article

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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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elizabeth Tasker is at the Institute of Space and Astronomical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Yoshinodai 3-1-1, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan.,

    Elizabeth Tasker

  2. Joshua Tan is at the Instituto de Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuna Mackenna 4860, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago, Chile.,

    Joshua Tan

  3. Kevin Heng is at the University of Bern, Center for Space and Habitability, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland.,

    Kevin Heng

  4. Stephen Kane is in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, California 94132, USA.,

    Stephen Kane

  5. David Spiegel is at Analytics & Algorithms, Stitch Fix, San Francisco, California 94103, USA.,

    David Spiegel

  6. Earth Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, 152-8550, Tokyo, Japan

    Ramon Brasser, John Hernlund, Christine Houser, Matthieu Laneuville & Marine Lasbleis

  7. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK

    Andrew Casey

  8. School of Earth & Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Steven Desch

  9. Space Research & Planetary Sciences, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Caroline Dorn

  10. Department of Mathematics, naXys, University of Namur, 8 Rempart de la Vierge, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Anne-Sophie Libert

  11. Department of Reference Systems and Planetology, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Avenue Circulaire 3, 1180, Brussels, Belgium

    Lena Noack

  12. School of Earth & Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Cayman Unterborn

  13. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    June Wicks

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Tasker
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  2. Joshua Tan
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  3. Kevin Heng
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  4. Stephen Kane
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  5. David Spiegel
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Consortia

the ELSI Origins Network Planetary Diversity Workshop

  • Ramon Brasser
  • , Andrew Casey
  • , Steven Desch
  • , Caroline Dorn
  • , John Hernlund
  • , Christine Houser
  • , Matthieu Laneuville
  • , Marine Lasbleis
  • , Anne-Sophie Libert
  • , Lena Noack
  • , Cayman Unterborn
  •  & June Wicks

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth Tasker.

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Cite this article

Tasker, E., Tan, J., Heng, K. et al. The language of exoplanet ranking metrics needs to change. Nat Astron 1, 0042 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0042

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0042

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