http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/
Excerpt:
Ever wanted to wish upon a star? Well, you have 70,000 million million million to choose from.
That’s the total number of stars in the known universe, according to a study by Australian astronomers.
It’s also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world’s beaches and deserts.
That’s the total number of stars in the known universe, according to a study by Australian astronomers.
It’s also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world’s beaches and deserts.
Yet some here argue that there can't possibly be life anywhere else but on this one planet. The sheer scale of the numbers involved argues that life is ubiquitous throughout the universe.
Perhaps it's very different from lifeforms found here, and perhaps the chemistry of those planets is far different from ours, but life has a way of occupying the unlikeliest niches.