[gore_sux]

"Earth is the ONLY planet of its kind in the galaxy, or even the Local Group, or maybe in the entire universe."

I'm sorry, that's a hard one to swallow. The galaxy is a very big place (100 billion stars), and it is less than a spec of sand in the Sahara compared to the known universe. The only reason we aren't finding more earthlike planets is because we don't have the technology to see them yet.

[backwoods-engineer]

"Earth is the ONLY planet of its kind in the galaxy, or even the Local Group, or maybe in the entire universe." I'm sorry, that's a hard one to swallow. The galaxy is a very big place (100 billion stars), and it is less than a spec of sand in the Sahara compared to the known universe. The only reason we aren't finding more earthlike planets is because we don't have the technology to see them yet.

Yes, there are many stars in our galaxy, but more than 99% of them are the wrong TYPE, or in the wrong PLACE, or of the wrong SIZE. Read "The Privileged Planet" by Guillermo Gonzalez. Remember, we are talking about "habitable" planets, not some piece of crap moon, tidally locked to its little red flare star, where a small colony of bacteria huddles in a little pond in the weak sunlight.

[James C. Bennett]

Click on the picture, and read the information on all the sections inside. This is one of the most awe-inspiring charts I've ever seen.

[webstersII]

“and it is less than a spec of sand in the Sahara compared to the known universe”

You get the Captain Hyperbole award for that.