No goldilocks plants yet discovered in all the exoplants found so far.

Even if any discovered what is the likelihood of an asteroid hitting just the right location and at the exact angle do destroy all the large reptilian life and allow the burrowing mammals to survive?

I read both linked articles. As the Science Alert piece makes clear, these are still very early days, as far as the observation of exoplanets is concerned. The article admits that detecting Earth-sized worlds is still very difficult-- to the point that we are probably missing most of them.

Large planets in general, and 'hot Jupiters' in particular, are much more readily found by both methods mainly in use, planetary transits of stars, and alterations in radial velocities of stars caused by planets' gravity pulling on them. In addition, the article notes: small objects are much more common in space than large ones. This presumably applies to planets, too.

The author concludes that in twenty years more of progress in observing exoplanets, we may well find that star systems like our own, with small, relatively dense planets in the habitable zones of their stars may be found to be reasonably common.

Interesting news from EarthSky, about the Chicxulub impactor that ended the dinosaur era, and launched the expansion and diversification of mammals. It may well have fallen such a way, as to be maximally destructive.
However, its now realized that the super-volcanoes of the Deccan Traps, erupting at about the same time, appear to have played an important role here, too.

Mass extinctions can occur at various times, due to a variety of causes. We have good evidence for a number of these in Earth's natural history. My point is that all forms of life have their entrances and exits. If dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct when they did, they'd have done so later; mammals were awaiting their opportunity.

This book from 2000 is worth a read as it makes a very good case for this premise and was one of the few well-known publications to do so. (It even made an appearance in my profile, before I cleared it when the project was euthanized.)

So, if we don't find anything out there, I won't be disappointed. :^)

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What life has survived this pan-galactic blaster?


See:

Wow! Cosmic Explosion From 2022 Was So Powerful It Acted on Earth As a Solar Storm



That is quite some far reaching "Ouch"!

Keep searchin'!!
Martin

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