http://sputniknews.com/science/20150128/1017448743.html

MOSCOW, January 28 (Sputnik) — The discovery, made as part of a new study published by the Astrophysical Journal, suggests that ancient life in our universe is more likely than was previously thought, The Los Angeles Times reports.

"It hints that old system planets are possible," said Sarbani Basu, an astronomy professor at Yale University and an author of the paper. "And if those planets are in the habitable zone, then it is possible we could have old life too."

The star, known as Kepler-444, is 11.2 billion years old, formed just 2.6 billion years after the Big Bang formed the universe and space-time.

Just 75% as massive as our sun, Kepler-444 is 117 light years away from Earth and is part of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Scientists say the planets that orbit Kepler-444 are no giants either, being somewhere between the size of Mercury and Venus. They also move faster making a complete orbit of their star in just 10 days

All these scientists seems to assume once a planet of the right size is in the habitable zone life would soon emerge.

There lots of other things that might not fall in to place - particularly the delivery or existence of water. There is divided opinions as to how water came to earth, If was delivered by comets then even planet in the habitable zones are not guaranteed to have water. The signature of the water found on most comets are heavier than the water on earth

And the seed of life? The right atmosphere ... There are still lots of "magics" that need to fall into place

On a separate note unrelated to your post - I noticed your rep is -323, i'm wondering WTF did you post to get that?

Well, water is pretty common, and back then would have been more common. There'd have been few heavy elements back then.

Earth started off with lots of water but most was probably burned off while it formed. There's many theories about how things form but I think even for them it's all speculative.

I personally think life is probably fairly common, though.

As for rep - people don't like singletons I guess. The irony is that I had the "neutral" stance really. But 'autism' on tech message boards is a serious annoyance and many bear grudges so now my rep goes down further every day.

All these scientists seems to assume once a planet of the right size is in the habitable zone life would soon emerge.

Not really. They assume that if a planet has earth-like characteristics, then it's possible that earth-like life (carbon based) will emerge. Even if the odds are 1 billion to one of life emerging on an earth-like planet, there are still potentially millions of life bearing planets in the universe. Of course, they're still probably too far away from us, and maybe the odds of intelligent life are even more astronomical. Interesting video on the topic

As for rep - people don't like singletons I guess. The irony is that I had the "neutral" stance really. But 'autism' on tech message boards is a serious annoyance and many bear grudges so now my rep goes down further every day.

Not really, Your rep is low because you make sweeping generalisations, or flat out wrong statments and then act like a spoilt child when corrected by people who clearly know more than you do.

People shouldn't correct when they don't know what they are talking about. Singleton is more ideological issue than anything, the people posting towards me were incredibly childish.

I didn't come and correct anyone else in the thread, they tried to do it to me, and failed horribly. Which is very common on this site. They had plenty of opportunity to make their own post, then to make a case for it. Instead they came out with some ignorant crap and attacked me, then complained to the mods and followed me around whining for days on end.

if someone asks for advice, give them advice. The purpose of a thread like that is not to play know-it-all. I have never once gone into such a thread and tried to oneup people who try to provide an honest opinion. People here do it constantly, most of whom are completely wrong. if someone attacks me and posts idiotic posturing nonsense, then don't be surprised if I defend myself.