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Three Earths Are Better Than One
European astronomers have found five Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars, three of which orbit the same star. However, the term Earth-like may be a misnomer, since the astronomer's definition of Earth-like is any planet smaller than a gas giant. All the of the five new planets discovered are more massive than our own Earth (ranging from 4.2 Earth gravities, to 22).
Still, the prospect of life on other worlds gets a boost every time such a new planet is discovered. Apparently more than 270 planets have been discovered beyond our solar system, suggesting "Earth-type" planets may be common throughout the galaxy. What does that suggest about the possibilities of life?
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More variables at play by Brandon :: NR9 :: Show
It seems this only scratches the surface of the investigation into the possibilities of lice. Assuming the purely scientific viewpoint (of course), the existence of life on "our" Earth no doubt passed through innumerable critical steps - each of which could have "failed" if the circumstances happened to be different (to whatever extent). In order to connect this process to planet properties, it seems we'd have to answer: