From the link:

__________________
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

So, hundreds of planets and dwarf planets waiting to be discovered in the outer reaches of our own solar system, untold billions in the rest of the milky way.

I think the likelihood of rocky planets forming will turn out to depend a lot on the metallicity of the parent star.

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin

I agree, but it might not be as straightforward a connection as we expect. All the stats we have to date suggest higher metallicity means a higher likelihood of gas giants or super-Earths/sub-Neptunes. But the presence of all those massive bodies throughout the disc may not be good news for terrestrial bodies, at least near the habitable zone. Or maybe a gas giant promotes terrestrial growth/prevents losses from migration, as several theories suggest. Perhaps there is even a sweet spot with just the right amount of giants, and the numbers fall away to either side.

I expect the general correlation will be positive, but it may not vary in the same way as it does for giant planets. Kepler will be very helpful.

Thanks, Tinaa. If the original poster had provided some details of what the proffered BBC link pointed to, I might have found that article in a search and avoided posting my own version (topic Nearby Sun-Like Stars May Form Rocky Planets ).

The headline "'Hundreds of worlds' in Milky Way" could have been a slight help, had I read it, but that didn't have the sort of keywords I hunted for. Me, I searched for the main authors of the corresponding paper, key words in the title that was attached to a couple of the official press releases, words like "spitzer", "sun-like" and "rocky" -- and found nothing recent.

Hint to posters, old advice to most, most commonly done I'm glad to say: Please don't just throw up a link. Tell us what we'll find there, enough to entice and even educate. Include a fat quote or two, to illustrate the topic of the article -- like Tinaa added. Employ some words you'd expect people to search for if seeking same or similar. Maybe offer one or more alternate links if you can find them -- in case one link dries up. Make your article have impact.

Thanks.

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...