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 - M-dwarf stars, much smaller, dimmer and cooler than stars like our sun, are by far the most common type of star in our galaxy. Yet scientists searching for life on other worlds have not shown much interest in M dwarfs. That's about to change. See article.
g Abodes - New research has now countered one of the key arguments against the past presence of large oceans on Mars. The new findings are another step forward in determining whether or not Mars once supported liquid water, a key component for environments habitable for life. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2364&mode=thread&
order=0&thold=0.
g Life - Researchers have tested the survival of methanogenic microorganisms in different soil types that resemble those found on Mars in order to test the possibility of these soils harboring life. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload&name=News
&file=article&sid=2365mode=thread&order=0&thold=0.
g Intelligence -Quote of the Day: "There may be a million worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy alone which are at this moment inhabited by other intelligent beings." — Carl Sagan (Cosmos, episode XI).
g Cosmicus - The first accommodation in orbit available to the public won't be a real "hotel" - it's more likely just to be rooms in pre-fabricated cylindrical modules connected together, because this is the easiest way to start. However, it will gradually grow in quantity and quality to include more elaborate facilities constructed in orbit - eventually including full-scale hotels and even apartment blocks. Starting at thousands of dollars per night, costs will fall continually as the volume grows, and it's likely that guests will choose to stay for longer and longer. See http://www.spacefuture.com/habitat/accommodation.shtml.
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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.