SETI public: Trillions of planets in the Universe?

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Sept. 25, 2003 — The chances of Earth being alone in the universe just got a whole lot smaller, as astronomers have dramatically raised the estimate on how many planets are out there.
The new estimate is based on calculations carried out by Charles Lineweaver and Daniel Grether at the University of New South Wales. Their findings, soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, estimate that at least 25 percent of Sun-like stars have planets.
"This means there are at least 100 billion stars with planets in our Galaxy," Lineweaver said. "With about 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, our result suggests that there are at least 10 trillion planetary systems in the Universe."
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030922/universe.html

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