17 billion 'earth sized' planets in the galaxy

[afleitch]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20942440

"Astronomers say that one in six stars hosts an Earth-sized planet in a close orbit - suggesting a total of 17 billion such planets in the galaxy.

The result comes from an analysis of planet candidates gathered by the Kepler telescope.

The Kepler team also announced 461 new planet candidates, bringing the satellites' total haul to 2,740.

The findings were announced at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in California. "

Wow. And that's only earth sized planets too. The chances of life and intelligent life must be fairly high.

[afleitch]

Keep in mind that not all of those will be in the proper Goldilocks Zone to support life.  Conversely, some of those gas giants might have moons with the proper conditions.
Then for the ultimate downer, we are still not certain that intelligence at the level that would be capable for interstellar communication is an evolutionary advantage in the long run.

And there's the problem. There could be two civilisations near us, one at the same stage as we were during the rise of Rome and one that's more advanced than we are but focused on mining the centre of their planet, neither either able or willing to reach out to us.