Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - By analyzing images of Titan's river networks, researchers have determined that in some regions, rivers have created surprisingly little erosion. This means that erosion on Titan may be extremely slow, or some other phenomena may have wiped out older riverbeds and landforms. See article.
g Cosmicus - A team of aquanauts were recently joined by ESA astronaut Tim Peake to test communication strategies for a future mission to an asteroid. The explorers spent 12 days underwater on the Neemo mission simulating a trip to an asteroid 15 million kilometers from Earth. See article.
g Learning - Edinburgh University’s upcoming free course, “Introduction to Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life” will open up an exciting new era in the study of extraterrestrial life. According to Jeff Haywood, vice principal of the University of Edinburgh, the number of students for the online course is potentially 100,000 or more. The course reflects the ever increasing global awareness of the possibility of extraterrestrial life and its societal implications. 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.