[anobjectivist]

Additionally:

The fact that there are billions of stars in the universe and we have only detected around 100 of these stars with close, jupiter like planets suggests the opposite of what this article reports. In all likelyhood, the planets we are detecting are the rare ones (big enough to show up after observation with simple telescopes), the more common planets are too small or too far away from their host star to be observable by our current method. Thus, any real studies on the limited data that our technology affords at the moment should be taken as premature, incorrect guesses.

[Burkeman1]

There are about 100 billion stars in the milky way alone. If only 0.01 percent had Earth like planets that still means ten million Earth like worlds just in our galaxy alone.

[stanz]

.... any real studies on the limited data that our technology affords at the moment should be taken as premature, incorrect guesses.

Exactly. At present we lack the kind of technological capabilities required to assess planetary genesis, evolution, orbit and life-support conditions.

[biblewonk]

The fact that there are billions of stars in the universe and we have only detected around 100 of these stars with close, jupiter like planets suggests the opposite of what this article reports. In all likelyhood, the planets we are detecting are the rare ones (big enough to show up after observation with simple telescopes), the more common planets are too small or too far away from their host star to be observable by our current method. Thus, any real studies on the limited data that our technology affords at the moment should be taken as premature, incorrect guesses.

Though I'm a creationist fundy I'm also an amature astronomer and I have to agree 100 percent with your posts. We are still discovering planets in our own solar system and Pluto has not been known for very long at all. Our ability to detect an earth sized planet within only a dozen lightyears is very limited.