[ken5050]

It's obvious...I mean, what are the odds that ANOTHER Democrat Party could exist somewheres else?

[RockinRight]

Jupiter has moons almost as big as Earth. It is possible, but not likely, that these close-in giant gas planets around other stars could have a "moon" that has life on it since the temperature itself may be OK.

[Always Right]

The universe is just too big for us ever to know, but it is clear that a planet like ours is rare.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Isn't it harder to observe and detect solar systems like ours at interstellar distances precisely because the planets are so small?

[Izzy Dunne]

It's also possible that current technology can ONLY detect planets that are large, therefore gaseous, therefore not sustaining life.

[LiberalBassTurds]

In an infinite universe there are infinite possibilities.

LBT

-=-=-

[theDentist]

I'll put this up there with sayings like "The Earth is flat", "Man was never meant to fly", "We'll never harness atomic energy", and "We'll never land on the moon". Such statements are foolish at best...

[Conan the Librarian]

I have been saying that this for years. In a finite universe someone HAS to be the first. We are here. There is no 'real' evidence of life off of Earth. Anything else is speculation, guessing, and/or just lies. I won't believe there is anything else out there until it comes through the StarGate and says 'HI'

[SerialRants]

Dear Presidio,
This is a great article and thanks for bringing it to my attention. Kee up the good work.

Signed,
Nobody

[wireman]

Solar system may be one of a kind...

Then again, it may not.

[js1138]

ping

[Publius6961]

There is speculation, and then there is dumb speculation.
I am sure that a flea on an elephant thinks there is only one elephant in the universe, too.

[TomServo]

Sping!

[Noachian]

What has been seen up to now does not bode well for the main purpose of seeking other planets -- finding life outside our solar system

If that's true then why spend billions of dollars trying to find life on other planets?

Why not spend those billions exploring and colonizing our own system and beyond? That's a surer way of finding alien life then sending out expensive probes that almost always fail.

[new cruelty]

Great topic to which I have nothing to offer at this time. So, I'll just get the popcorn and read along. : )

[Boomer Geezer]

Science PING!

[doc30]

Of course all the newly discovered solar systems are big gassy planets orbiting close to their stars. Those are the only systems our science can currently detect.

[taxed2death]

Sounds kinda dumb. Let's see, we looked at 120 other solar systems. How many trillions of suns are out there? I'd say we would need to study a few hundred million solar systems to come up with the observation that ours is truely unique.

[steve-b]

Livio and colleagues took a close look at what is known about the other planetary systems that have been discovered.

Detectability is in direct proportion to the size/mass of a planet (size for the eclipse method, mass for the wobble method) and in inverse proportion to the planet's orbital period (the longer each orbit takes, the longer you have to watch to detect the eclipses and wobbles). This obviously produces a severe selection effect in the currently available data.

Failure to understand such elementary points is par for the course for the media, but, really, Livio ought to know better.

[HenryLeeII]

Solar system may be one of a kind

I'll keep an eye out for another one, but I don't recall seeing any others... ;>)