Habitable Exo-Earths With 'Wrecking Ball' Neighbors

Terrestrial-mass planets can orbit stars with close-in Jupiter-mass companions and remain habitable over millions if not billions of years, astronomers now report. A new study suggests that a hypothetical earth-like planet could orbit exterior to the large gas giant planet now circling the nearby bright sun-like star 70 Virginis (70 Vir) and still be hospitable to life as we know it.