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NASA Finds Family of Habitable Planets
coondoggie writes "NASA's star-gazing space telescope continues to find amazing proof that there are tons of habitable planets in space and we have only scratched the surface of what's out there. The space agency said today its Kepler space telescope spotted what it called its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in what it considers to be the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system."
I suppose the Earth being potentially borderline habitable may have something to do with the apparent lack of evidence of extraterrestrials. A planet that is too friendly to life may not have had the 6+ mass extinctions and rapidly changing environment that helps drive evolution. One that's borderline habitable like ours (assuming the assertion in your link is true) keeping life for as long as it has might be a tremendous fluke.
It's not for a lack of trying... Generally, "habitable" and "promoting complex life" are probably two different things (for one, comfortably habitable (by the criteria from my link) planets might be, from certain point on, way too active for stable complex ecosystems). And "promoting intelligence" - another thing. "Leading to technological civilization" - yet another. That might be enough of an explanation. We're here for a blink of an eye, so far.
One that hath name thou can not otter