Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers have discovered islands of cold gas and a mysterious haze of microwaves in our galaxy. The results include the first map of carbon monoxide to cover the entire sky. See article.
g Abodes - Alien planets might experience tidal forces powerful enough to remove all their water, leaving behind hot, dry worlds like Venus. See article.
g Life - Scientists have developed a "biological computer" made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA announced Monday a $17.7 billion budget request for fiscal year 2013. The budget does not enable NASA to move forward with the planned 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions in collaboration with the European Space Agency. See article.
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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.