hmmmm i could be wrong, but in the demo whenever he's zoomed out, it bin the same spiral galaxy, like our own. So i reckon we might all recieve the same sorta template for a galaxy, basic shape, location of black holes etc (if there are any) and maybe even the different solar systems. however what these planets would consist of would would be randomly generated 2 suit our needs. This way certain items, like the relics and alien technology could be in certain places, like the 3rd planet away from you, and the 1st intelegent life you encounter in the 2nd solar sytem you explore...
You could be right about the basic shape of the galaxy, but I doubt the star systems and black holes will be in the same location. One thing I will be doing is to save the game at a point just before I leave the solar system. I will then load the game at that point several times to see if I get different planets and stars each time.
thinking about it, would it be easier 2 program a set galaxy that had the ability 2 randomly generate planets or a galaxy that can completely randomly generated itself?
Interesting question. It would be easier to program a set galaxy with randomly generated planets, but I think WW will have the galaxy generated entirely procedually. Read the posts about the pollination and maybe watch the video from GDC05 and listen to what WW says for the difference between random and procedual
thinking more 
hasnt ww already said it would be like 10,000 planets max? surely that means there imposing some kinds of limits to it, meaning maybe we're gettin a template?!
more like about 10,000,000
The templates you are speaking of will actually be mostly from other players of Spore.
