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Originally Posted by PhantomWolf
I think that Astronomy is showing us more and more how rare Earth really is. Whether that means life is rare of niot, I'm not going to comment because that has to get into belief not fact.
Most of the systems we hve found outside of our own would be unable to support life as we know it. With huge Jovian planets having swept in towards their suns, absorbing or kicking out any Earth-like planets. From what we are seeing this seems to be the norm, not the exception.
Add to that all the other things that even makes Earth uniquie in our own system and we start to have a very improbable planet. Regardless of you accept E or C, you can't ignore that fact. How you view that affect the chances of life and Intelligent life outside our system, well again that's personal belief.
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As usual the state of scientific knowledge is in flux. Right now our observational methods limit us for the most part to detecting Jovian-size planets around other stars. It would be premature to make conclusions based only on this evidence. Within 10 to 20 years (maybe sooner) our observational methods will allow us to detect terrestrial-sized planets around other stars. In the case of one space-based telescopic array, we may be able to do this through direct observation.
Once we have extensive data from those observations, then we will be able to conclude whether our planet is uncommon or typical, within the local galactic region.