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The Drake Equation
Calculating the possibility of life
A 360º photo of the Milky Way seen from Death Valley, USA.
Image and more details may be found at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070508.html
Is there life out there?
• Since the 1960’s astronomers have been trying to work out the probability of contacting extra-terrestrial life.
• To work out the overall probability we need to ‘guestimate’ the probability of a number of factors occurring.
R*,the rate of formation of stars in our galaxy
fp, the fraction of stars that have planets around them
ne, the number of suitable planets in each planetary system
fl the fraction of suitable planets which develop life
fi the fraction of life-bearing planets which develop intelligent life
ft the fraction of intelligent life bearing planets which develop technology
L, the length of time the civilisation releases signals into space
What if they’ve already tried to contact us and
we missed the call?
The Drake Equation
• To work out the number of civilisations in our galaxy with whom we might have a hope of communicating we multiply all these factors together.
LffnfRN tlep *
• Different astronomers and cosmologists use different values for each of these factors.
• However, it is generally thought that there is a finite chance of contacting extraterrestrial intelligent beings.