...there is life on other planets?
Almost certainly (and I only include the "almost" out of due deference to tentativity)
Now, how much of this life has developed into something more complex than a basic microbial stage is another question entirely...
Basic reasoning for the above (off the top of my head):
Abiogenesis is a physical process and thus we can assign a gross probability, p, to the probability that abiogenesis occurs in a single trial.
The number of trials appropriate to p is roughly the number of stellar systems to +/- an order of magnitude or so.
Let us consider just the Observable Universe. That gives an n of around 10
22. Let X be the number of abiogenetic events.
If p>10
-22, then E(X)>1 and P(X=1) is very small.
If p~10
-22, then E(X)~1, but still P(X>1) > P(X=1), and suggests a level of "fine-tuning" which would require further explanation.
If P<10
-22, then E(X)~0 and P(X=1)>>P(X>1), but P(X=1)<<1 and thus X=1 is a highly significant event which requires further explanation.
Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.