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I think there is little wrong with assuming that the probability of appearance of life given right condition and time to develop is one

Fair enough. It's a bit like the infinite monkeys in infinite typewriters scenario. Given enough time, sure, you'll have life. It's a question of how much time. Still, assuming all Eart-like planets will actually develop life given the time lapse of the existence of the Milky Way does still seems like a bold assumption.



> It's a question of how much time

Your point is correct, but my hunch is that the time needed is no more than a million years or so (small on the galaxy scale), possibly less.


Isn't it generally thought that life didn't appear here for around 100 million years after the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment?


I am not a geologist, but the Wikipedia article on the Late Heavy Bombardment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment#Geologic...) says that 100 million years is the time that an Earth-sized body would take to to cool down and form a crust (the bombardment basically tuned the Earth into a ball of molten magma).




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