Other Worlds

First, to give you a perspective of how much a billion is:  One BILLION minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.  Try to keep in mind just how great a number that is as you read below.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy contains 100 - 400 BILLION stars.

Astronomers think that there may be at least 17 BILLION earth-sized worlds in our galaxy alone.

If just 1% of these earth-sized worlds are habitable, that would be 170 million worlds.  If only 1% of these worlds have developed complex animals, that would be 17,000 worlds. If only 1% of these animals have evolved so much that they have a civilization similar to ours, that would be 170 worlds . . . in our galaxy alone.

The most recent computer simulations say that there are 500 BILLION galaxies in our universe.  If we only count 400 BILLION of those, each with 170 civilized worlds, that would be 79,900 BILLION civilized worlds.

If only 1% of these civilized worlds actually do exist, that would be 799 BILLION civilized worlds. 

If we cut this down even further and accept that just 1% of those worlds actually contain civilization, that would be 7.99 BILLION civilized worlds in our universe. 

(Info mostly from here).

I imagine that it could be very likely that there is a person just like me with thoughts similar to mine who is sitting in front of her computer a BILLION light-years away . . .  also wondering.