The answer to the great question, life, and everything is...42. Gliese 581 G.

In early 2010 scientists discovered a series of planets dubbed the Gliese 581 system, it consists of 6 planets orbiting a star much as Earth does in our solar system. The planets in the Gliese system have been generically named; E, B, C, G, D, and F. It's believed by scientists that the planet G may be capable of supporting life, it is not too close to the orbiting sun nor too far away suggesting temperatures on the planet may be livable. Also it appears that there is water on the planet, and the general consensus is that wherever water exists, life must exist, a main reason why they have tried so hard to find and prove that water exists or existed on Mars. The Gliese system is about 20 light years distance from Earth, to put that into perspective one light year is 6 trillion miles so the system is 120,000,000,000 miles from us. Given that large of a distance it would still take 20 years worth of traveling at the speed of light which is 299,792,458 metres per second or approximately 186,282 miles per second, all of that and we have not yet mastered space travel nor created a vehicle capable of traveling the speed of light.  

This to me is very exciting, it is one of the first possibilities of a planet that may have the ability to support life. I have always been a believer that there must be others out there, it is just arrogant to think that this is the only planet in all of the universe with intelligent life. When you think how massive space is and the millions possibly trillions of stars and other planets that are out there it seems like a waste of space for every planet other than ours to be dead. But given the distance between our systems and our spacial limitations it will be a very long time before we learn very much more about the Gliese or other similar systems. 

Ok enough science and off on to a tangent about my random thoughts. I think that is these distance worlds are inhabited by intelligent life there would have to be an explanation as to why we have not yet seen them or evidence of them elsewhere in the universe. My ideas are that either; they are closely in line with our own intelligence level and development and have also not yet mastered space travel in order to travel to our world; they are less intelligent and developed than we are and have thousands of years worth left before they would attempt space travel; or they are far more advanced than we are and they have learned of our world and observed us yet have decided not to interfere because we are not yet intelligent enough and capable of being peaceful with another species more intelligent than our own (sorry for the giant run-on sentence). Anyways I think it would be incredible to present when we do finally make contact (no not that stupid Jodie Foster movie) although it will most likely not take place in our lifetime, or for several thousand years but the thought is cool. Cheers.