[Windflier]

...the 500 planets studied are the rule. Too cold, too hot, too irradiated, too something. Study 500 million planets and you’ll find the same thing

As long as we're using our current technology which can only infer the presence of super-massive giants that are tugging on their parent planets, then yes, what you say is correct.

Give our technology a couple of generations to improve, and we'll be directly sensing small rocky planets like our own.

The chances of finding earthlike planets will then increase exponentially, as will the chances of discovering evidence for life on them.

[denydenydeny]

Everyone on this thread seems to be making the same mistake. It doesn't matter if there are billions, or trillions, or quadrillions of other planets. Wihtout the exact conditions that exist on earth complex life cannot exist. In fact, as the article below points out, the Milky Way itself is very nearly unique in the high metal content of its planets. We already know that there are thousands and thousands of entire galaxies that are sterile. Please read:

Maybe we are alone in the Universe after all