Habitable Planets may be Common?

[Tommygun]

Astronomers at the State Universities in Manoa and Berkeley published a study Monday, in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, that at least 8.8 billion stars may have Earth-size planets in the habitable temperature zone.

Sounds great, but is it too optimistic?

Edit: by Habitable Planets, I don't mean life is there, just that they have favorable conditions.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/HabitablePlanetsCommon/

http://www.timesdaily.com/news/nation/article_7e67ff98-6e33-5896-8114-ebf4e39ed37c.html

Edited November 5, 2013 by Tommygun

[Nibb31]

Simply being at a similar orbital distance as Earth doesn't make a planet habitable. We lack data to extrapolate statistics. The only model we have is our own solar system.

But yes, it is statistically probable that among the billions of planets in the galaxy, there might be some that are like ours. It's all hypothetical though, because there is no way for us to ever go there or even communicate.

[3_bit]

The most important thing to note is that all planets are habitable. Even the moon. They're just not as habitable to us. For example: Mars could easily have plants, as it has CO2. I imagine we could terraform it easily, even though the pressure will never be right, it's possible we could use it as a giant greenhouse if we find some plants that can take the harsh conditions.