Did you guys catch the news of Gliese 581c? It was so exited when late in the evening this news leaked through the news embargo that was on it.
The implications are huge. It's the holy grail of exo-planets. Finding such an earth-like planet so nearby. And if the atmosphere is of the right type then it has great potential to be able to support life.
There is also the radiation problem because it is tidal locked. But the star is a red dwaft so it has less radation output.
And this means 2 planets out of less than 100 stars. There are billions of galaxies with billions of stars. If two earth-like planets in 100 stars is common then there will be billions of earth-like planets.
Life becomes very likely with this. And as the odds of life increase so do the odds of intelligent life increase.
William Hill Online Sports Betting dropped the odds of finding extraterrestial life from 1/1000 to 1/100 based on the news of this new planet.
Other bookmakers will do the same thing.
This planet will probably be the recipient of the first probe we send on a mission outside our solar system.