Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.

BBC: Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

This is easily enough to detect Jupiter-like planets around distant stars, and it should also be enough to detect smaller, Uranus-like planets around stars within the sun's stellar neighbourhood.

ECONOMIST: A roadmap for planet-hunting

By the time any change occurred, humans might even have generated technology that could speed up the Earth's rotation or transport us to other liveable planets within our galaxy.

BBC: Why the Moon is getting further away from Earth

Mars is more like Earth than any other place in the known universe, and while astronomers now believe there may be millions of earth-like planets in our galaxy, Mars is the only one that is within reach.

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