Judging from what Stephen Hawking said in his recen
t warning I am not sure the communication will be pleasant.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010 08:27
Proof of aliens estimated in 25 years says SETI scientist
Written by Jeffrey Sinor-
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Ready for 2035? Well..we may have proof of alien life by that time.
A SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute) senior astronomer says there is a good chance we will have evidence of alien life within 25 years. Shostak bases his estimation on the Drake Equation. This equation is a formula conceived by SETI pioneer Frank Drake to calculate the number (N) of alien civilizations with whom we might be able to
communicate. This equation takes into account a variety of factors to include the rate of star formation in the galaxy, the fraction of stars that have planets, the fraction of planets that are habitable, the percent of those that actually develop life, the percent of those that develop intelligent life, the fraction of civilizations that have a technology that can broadcast their presence into space, and the length of time those signals would be broadcasted.
How to interprete what an alien lifeform would be trying to tell us through an alien signal is the next step.
Alien life in 25 years?
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Tuesday, 17 August 2010 09:15
posted by David Mayer
The Drake Equation was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy.
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The Drake Equation is: N = (N*)(fp)(ne)(fl)(fi)(fc)(fL)
Where:
N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (100 billion estimate)
fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them (estimates range from 20% to 50%)
ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life (estimates range from 1 to 5)
fl is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves (estimates range from 100% close to 0%)
fi is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves (estimates range from 100% close to 0%)
fc is the fraction of fi that communicate (10% to 20%)
fL is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live (difficult to estimate 1/1,000,000th)
N is the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy