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 - The galactic neighborhood just got more crowded. Astronomers have found 20 previously unknown star systems that lie within 33 light-years of Earth. All the stars are faint, low-mass objects called red dwarfs, which rank among the most prevalent stars in the Milky Way. See article. Note: This article is from late 2006.
g Abodes - New research indicates that gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn, form quickly after their stars do. In fact, they probably form within the first 10 million years of a star's life, or else they never form at all. See article.
g Life - Quote of the Day: "Is Life a random accident, or is the Universe in some way designed to produce it? In an infinite Universe...everything that can happen will happen, an infinite number of times" — Arthur C. Clarke
g Cosmicus - COSPAR - The Committee on Space Research - might be described as the United Nations of space research and collaboration. From Astrobiology Magazine, European Edition is an interview with its president, Roger Bonnet, about COSPAR's role in space exploration. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2363&mode=thread&
order=0&thold=0.
g Imagining - Is there life on Mars? Here’s a timeline of the debate: http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040123173004.po61yma6.html.
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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.