Looks like these guys were pretty much on the money. They claimed there was a better than 50% chance we'd find a "Goldilocks" zone planet by May of next year.
Interesting quote from the Wired article:
“The fact that we found one so close and so early on in the search suggests there’s a lot of these things,” Butler says. Only about 100 other stars are as close to Earth as Gliese 581, and only 9 of them have been closely examined for planets. Odds are good that 10 to 20 percent of stars in the Milky Way have habitable planets, Vogt says.And likely where there can exist life, so there exists life.
What is life, and why does it exist in our universe? No one knows. But if the universe is as large as is predicted by inflation, then it doesn't even have to be infinitely large for there to be life literally everywhere.
Life—and perhaps intelligence—is as characteristic of this universe as nuclear fusion or even dust.
(By the way, I have a bet going that we discover at least 116 exoplanets by NYE this year.)
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