log in

The Drake Equation are we not Alone?

the Drake equation Mitchell Lazear the Drake equation
Rate this item
(3 votes)

What are our chances of communicating with intelligent aliens? Are there other habitable worlds in our galaxy? Is there life elsewhere in our galaxy? Is there intelligent life? Are there other technological civilizations in our galaxy with whom we can communicate? How can we estimate how many there are of each of these?

In 1961, Dr. Frank Drake developed the Drake Equation to estimate the number of other technological civilizations that exist in our galaxy with whom we can communicate. Use the adapted version below to calculate the number of worlds within our Milky Way Galaxy that have intelligent life whose radio emissions should be detectable.


Use the buttons and sliders and Enter your estimates for each term below. You can learn more about each term and receive some help deciding upon estimated values. The values will be instandly updated.

 

Drake Equation app Credits:

NOVA scienceNOW

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/drake-equation.html

Images

(Frank Drake)
© Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS
(Milky Way, star formation, Earth, satellite dishes, meteorite)
© NASA
(star wobble)
produced by the Cornell Theory Center based on research by Alex Wolszczan, Penn State
(bacteria)
© Howard Sochurek/CORBIS
(dolphins)
Courtesy of NOAA

Resources:

http://www.seti.org/drakeequation

Media

excerpt From Cosmos documentary series Carl Sagan Productions
Last modified onFriday, 12 August 2016 03:36

Related items

More in this category: « The Disclosure Petition UPDATE

17 comments

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.