Supermoons
Here we go again.
At the first stage of exoplanet discovery (which we have not entirely left yet), we only detected hot Jupiters and other behemoths orbiting near their parent star. Then we started detecting so-called "super-Earths" that might have the means to support life, but were more than twice as large as our Earth.
Well I'm sorry, but, independantly of the problem we have getting there, I don't see any normal human being settling on a planet that has a gravitational field that is twice as powerful (or more) then the one we have here. A person weighing 80kg on our blue planet will find themself battling against 160kg on a "super-Earth" that has just twice the grav potential. Cardiac problems, ahoy !
Now, I understand the issues we have with detection, and the fact that media outlets need to generate views, but could we put a damper on all these pseudo-Earth-like planets we are finding until we find a planet that is actually Earth-like in size and density ?
Because that is the kind of planet we need to look for as far as colonization is concerned. Well, IMO at least.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
