Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Early galaxies from the universe’s distant past grew up much faster than astronomers anticipated, according to a new study in the current issue of Astrophysical Journal. See http://www.space.
com/scienceastronomy/061002_mystery_monday.html.
g Abodes - A team of UK, French and Swiss astronomers has discovered two new Jupiter-sized planets around stars in the constellations of Andromeda and Delphinus. They are among the hottest planets yet discovered. Their atmospheres are slowly being whipped away into space by the searing radiation from their parent stars. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060926080308.htm.
g Life - During an expedition off the South American coast, an international team of ocean scientists discovered that the gases ethane and propane are being produced by microorganisms in deeply buried sediments. The findings suggest that microbes below the seafloor carry out processes that are highly relevant to both our understanding of global cycles and the metabolic abilities of microbes. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop
=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2095mode=thread
&order=0&thold=0.
g Cosmicus - The future will take to the skies over New Mexico next month as teams compete in the Lunar Lander Challenge sponsored by NASA under their Centennial Challenges program. See http://www.space.com/includes/iab.html?url=/spacewatch/060922_night_sky.html.
g Learning - It's an exciting time for educators and students. Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will return to the moon. This time, they're planning to stay - building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. Today's students will be tomorrow's explorers. How will space exploration benefit their lives in the future? That's the question asked by a new NASA competition for students ages 11-18. The first NASA 21st Century Explorer Podcast Competition challenges students to create unique audio and video podcasts. The topic: How will space exploration benefit your life in the future? See http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=20906.
The Drake Equation
This formula estimates the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.N=(R*)(Ns)(Fp)(Ne)(Fl)(Fi)(Fc)(L)
Where:- N = Number of civilizations we can communicate with
- R* = Average star formation rate
- Ns = Percentage of stars capable of supporting earth-like planets
- Fp = Percentage of those stars with planets
- Ne = Average umber of planets in those stars' habitable zones
- Fl = Percentage of those planets where life begins
- Fi = Percentage of planets with life where an intelligent species evolves
- Fc = Percentage of those intelligent species that develop communication technology
- L = Average lifetime, in years, of a civilization that develops such technology
About Me
- Rob Bignell
- I'm the owner and chief editor at Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the editing and proofreading needs of writers both new and published. For more than two decades, I worked as an award-winning journalist, with half of those years spent as an editor. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres have been published, and I am the author of the nonfiction “Hikes with Tykes” series, a novel "Windmill", and a collection of poetry, "Love Letters to Sophie's Mom". For seven years I worked as an English teacher or a community college journalism instructor. I hold a master's degree in English and a bachelor's in journalism and English.