A Game-Changer in the Search for Alien Life: “All stars have planets”
Astronomers working with the Kepler spacecraft have announced new evidence suggesting that there are far more potentially habitable planets in our galaxy than we had believed. And just as surprisingly, these planets emerged much longer ago than expected — a revelation that could have profound implications in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
What does it mean? We talked to the head of SETI, who explained why this news changes everything.
The researchers came to this conclusion by studying the way that planets are formed. Conventional thinking suggests that no planets can form until the requisite raw materials are present — something that can't happen until stars pour considerable amounts of silicon and oxygen into the Universe. These elements form the basic building blocks of rocks, which in turn are the stuff that planets are made out of.
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http://io9.com/5918518/a-game+changer-for-the-search-for-alien-life-all-stars-have-planets?tag=space
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...we are searching for life but also one of the reasons we might be here in the first place.
(no death star has got us)
also...time is a huge factor. We have to "catch" civilizations at the right time.
Too early and there's nothing. Too late and they either have a different form of communication or they simply don't want to be bothered ....
There's many more reasons why life is hard to find but keep this in mind>
We may regret being found. Not all races will be "nice guys"
We're here to serve you. 
That's good news. Of course, we always knew it was true; just needed confirmation.
Well, not ALL stars, maybe. I don't think Eta Carinae and similar stars have planets. Wolf-Rayet stars probably not either. Even if they do, they aren't likely inhabited.
But I like the M-type stars, the red dwarfs, which are by far the most numerous type in the universe. What's more, they live a very, very long time, far longer than our Sun. Planets around M-dwarfs, if close enough might have stable biospheres for billions of years.
Life is everywhere is cool. I am ready for us to find them.
As long as they don't have a book entitled:
To Serve Man
