Could there be a minor planet near earth that can support life?
Within our own solar system, there is no other place which might contain the diversity of life seen on Earth. However, there are a couple placed in our solar system which could potentially have some form of life – likely simple organisims or microbes. The most likely candidate is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Outside of our solar system, there are no known planets of an equivalent size to Earth. I believe the smallest extrasolar planet is believed to be about 3 times the size of Earth, but it is far too close to it’s star to support life as we know it. I happen to believe it is likely there is an Earth like planet or moon within our galactic neighborhood. But with the vast distances between stars, it is unlikely that we could visit a planet orbiting even our nearest neighbor. EDIT Given that Earth is just one planet orbiting a single unremarkable star in the outer reaches of a large galaxy, I see absolutely no reason to believe anything about our solar system – or about Earth – are particular
