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 - Book alert: Among all known agents of cosmic creative destruction, none are more potently menacing – and intriguing – than black holes, the subject of Caleb Scharf’s new book “Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life In The Cosmos.” See article.
g Life - Phosphorus is vital to life on Earth, even though our planet doesn't provide life very much phosphorus to work with. Scientists are now studying how phosphorus biochemistry may have originated at the dawn of life. See article.
g Cosmicus - Scientists are now conducting a simulated mission to a near-Earth asteroid at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. 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.