Milky Way Might Contain 'Hundreds' of Earth-like Planets

How is a frozen ball outside the Kupier belt "earth like"?

Yeah, got my hopes up for Nothin'.
On a side note, we could be having fun exploring other intelligent civilization in the universe in SPORE soon. ;)

Agreed.

Earth-like to me suggests a planet that has water, and can house carbon based life forms.

E.g. a mirror immage of us, perhaps devoid of human beings...

and having said that I'm sure The Omega Man will suddenly appear with some quip about how humans all suck, but somehow he's outside of that definition.

I bet the bible bashers will have something to say about that...

Me, I'm not suprised. glad someone's actually trying to find out/prove it :)

If I gambled, then I would place all my money on us finding another planet that could actually support us without much adaption. However, WHEN this would happen is hard to say because it feels like humanity is taking some quick steps backwards after the last century.

It will take real leadership to help us find those places and get us out there. Maybe humanity hasn't earned the right to go beyond the moon yet for a reason... we are too selfish and primitive to deal with the universe-at-large.

And that's actually sending probes to our nearest stars now. That way, our children will be able to reap the benefits.

I was reading up some stuff on Wiki and ran across the article on the Drake Equation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/
Pretty simple model actually.

"the Drake Equation" Gotta love the Drake ;]

So all we need to do now invent the warp drive, terra forming and artificial gravity. Oh and find these planets.

Either that or just use the technology and star maps the US government has from all those crashed UFOs.

We only emitted very strong radar communications for a short period of time.

None of our radio or television or mobile phone transmissions get far from earth, let alone this system.

So Fermi is a bit rubbish.

As for terraforming, its probably not possible/pointless.
Were much more likely to build sealed environments to live in, when we finaly zoom off to luna/mars/asteroids.

"and having said that I'm sure The Omega Man will suddenly appear with some quip about how humans all suck, but somehow he's outside of that definition."

That Force based ESP is really on the money Jedi *immense sarcasm"

Every time i think of all the earth-like planets just waiting to be infested and ruined by people, a shiver of outrage goes down my spine.

I saw this evil happening ages ago and decided to do something about it. I have sent and continue to send messages into Deep Space warning any life forms of the Viral Threat that is Homo Sapiens. The messages are converted into math forumlas/binary code.

I have also sent a description of what Humans look like, The Level of Violence and Destruction Humans commit and also the Earth/Solar System's LOCATION. If they decipher and understand the warnings of the messages, They can defend themselves or better yet, Come to Earth and "Persuade" people to admit that they are not fit for the Privilege of Space Travel or First Contact through Forced Planetary Containment or Defensive Annihilation of all Terran Lifeforms.

*Grabs your tinfoil hat off your head*

Keep away!

my definition of earthlike planet would almost certianly by definition have to have trees, because O2 would have to be present (anything above 18% is suitable)... water would have to be present of course... and of course have a natural protection from the sun via an electromagetic belt.... i would bet there are a few thousand of these types of planets in our galaxy at the very least, though they could be incapable of supporting life for other reasons.

"though they could be incapable of supporting life for other reasons."

What ... you mean like lacking a Jupiter like class of planet in the outer system to divert most rogue debris away from the inner system?

Come on now ... we need at least one planet to setup life on, come back about 20-50 years later and laugh at the devastation.