I'd guess M-class on the terminator, L-class on the dark side, and whatever's in between M-class and Y-class on the sun side.
Finally some news that isn't outright horrible. Hopefully, their planet doesn't have bumper stickers, truck nuts, and clergymen. There'd be someplace in the universe I could feel good about without reservation.
And thankfully a couple years back Dubya got us back on track for manned space exploration. Sure returning to the Moon and them moving on to Mars is nothing compared to interstellar travel, but the journey of 1,000 miles...
So what do actual scientists use as a term in lieu of "M class"? Because there's no way scientists would actually use that phrase officially.
Someone has come up with an unofficial scale http://nuclearvacuum.wikia.com/wiki/Planetary_classification
^^^ Anything with testosterone makes Diacanu swoon. I think that's why he likes anime. The androgyny of the characters puts his delicate disposition at ease.
What, are you BREEDING your truck? Is it best in show? Are there little mini club cabs roaming around on a farm somewhere?
Point of order: Near Earth asteroid "Apophis" was named for the Goa'uld villain who tried to destroy the Earth in season 1 of "Stargate: SG1." And scientists recently named a dinosaur after Kramer from "Seinfeld", so I wouldn't be too sure.
My BS-o-meter is at 5/10 here... I'm pretty sure Apophis was named after the Egyptian god, not the Goa'uld pretending to be him.
That says that the astronmers named it after the mythological Apophis, although they liked the name because of Stargate. Try again.
A 'compelling case for a potentially habitable planet' isn't finding a new Earth. We know fuck all about that place. It could be a sky of ammonia and lakes of hydrochloric acid. But scientists need funding, and media needs to sell ads, so we get lied to a lot.
You know other planets somewhere are likely to be investigating Earth and thinking "if there is life, it's only crude, primitive life at best. Nothing intelligent could ever evolve on this planet. The conditions are not like our planet." Have you ever heard of only "one" of anything? So why only one planet with life? That wouldn't make sense.