Where planets can form, they do (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, Austin

New work by a team of US astronomers has shown that wherever there is room for a planet to form around a young star, it does.

The researchers predicted the existence of an unknown planet circling a star more than 200 light-years from Earth.

This prediction was based on a study of the orbits of two planets already known to orbit the star HD 74156.

They then observed the system and confirmed there was a new planet just where they predicted it would be.

The find represents the first time astronomers have successfully forecast the existence of an unknown planet since Neptune was predicted in the 1840s.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7183563.stm

[Kutjara]

1. Hmmm, if planets are an inevitable emergent phenomena...

...as this study appears to indicate, the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe just went up by several orders of magnitude.

[lapfog_1]

2. It appears that Drake's equation is going to have some very

big factors, which is why it will turn out to be very likely that there is other intelligent life in the universe.