Thank you to all of you who attended this Monday! I hope that all of you enjoyed it. First the question was posed: Do you think there is life outside Earth, somewhere in the universe? All the answers were yes! - there is life in the universe. The second question was: Do you think that we will find life in the universe? The answer to this question was a little shaky to say the least; no one was prepared to commit to us finding life in the universe. So what is needed for life? Here is what you said:
The Drake equation is a way of showing how likely it is that there is life in the universe which is actively trying to communicate with us. N - the number of communicating civilizations in our galaxy R* - The rate of star formation in our galaxy fp - the fraction of these stars which have planets ne- the number of these planets which have the potential to support life; which are earth like fl - the fraction of these earth-like planets which actually develop life fi - the fraction of this life which develops intelligence fc - the fraction of this intelligent life which develops communicative technology L - lifetime of such a civilization The first two terms of the equation are perhaps the ones most based on factual knowledge. We know that the rate of star formation in the galaxy is around 7 stars per year. There has been a lot of research about exoplanets recently, are we believe that almost all stars will have a planetary system of some sort. After that is when the things start moving into the realm of guesswork. We can move to each term guessing a number for each one, simply because we don't know enough about the universe. We only have one example of a solar system that we can scrutinize, and only one form of life: perhaps the greatest example of inaccurate extrapolation. There are however some terms which can create intrigue in a discussion: the fraction of life which develops intelligence. Would it be wrong to say that this is 100%? If life develops, surely it would evolve to intelligent beings? The terms after that is an interesting one too. We are currently searching for extraterrestrial life by sending radio waves into space. Our form of communicative technology is electromagnetic radiation. Based upon our knowledge of the universe, EM waves are a widespread phenomena; definitely not something we have created. Would it be a stretch to say that intelligent living being somewhere in the far reaches of the galaxy also uses radio waves? Probably not. But then again, who's to say that these aliens haven't developed something like telepathy? As for the lifetime of such as civilizations, how long will they actively broadcast for? A better question would be how longs are we going to broadcast for? 100 years? 1,000? 10,000? In short, we simply do not have enough knowledge to make a prediction which is anywhere near accurate. However, it is a great way to speculate about life in the universe. Put in you own number and see what result you get! (We got about 2500 communicating civilizations in our galaxy on Monday) Shubhangi
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June 2020
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