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Wow, a 1in 5 ratio seems very high, I imagine that this finding was quite surprising.
There is no spoon.
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interesting thought. in thinking about this, i wonder if it is the following effect:
- the initial extrasolar planets to be discovered are going to be the ones at the extreme end of the bell curve in size, because they are going to be the only ones whose effects were noticeable with the equipment that we had at the time
- then, as equipment sensitivities and techniques improve, we work our way through the rest of the large half of the bell curve
- so, the current state of the art is that we are finally able to detect planets the size of the earth. which means that, with the latest techniques (Kepler), we are able to detect earth-sized planets and larger. however, the larger ones that are close have already been discovered, which means that the large ones found now correspond to planets that are further away
- as so, the proportion of earth-sized planets discovered with Keplar will be the same as the proportion of earth-sized planets to larger ones that are out there in general, which should roughly match the same proportion in our solar system. which they do (2 earth sized planets, 4 giants)
what do you think?
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Hmmm, that's a very intriguing concept Jim, I don't know nearly enough about cosmology to comment on it in detail, but could it be that the general concept where technology is extending our research abilities into different realms, possibly altering our findings as a result, could apply to a whole host of arenas, for example, programmed reality? 
There is no spoon.
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i would like to know what kind of intelligent life we expect to find out there on other earthlike planets--certainly not human type for we only got here because of the meteor strike that wiped out the dinosaurs and gave our tiny mammal ancestors the chance to evolve---please share your views about what we might expect to find other intelligent life to look like on planets similar to our own where the life that developed evolved without accidental incidents to affect the outcome--although now that i think of it --maybe other earthlike planets did not have the geological events happen that created the need for dinosaurs and they just developed mammals or something else that evolved into something similar to us--
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