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Showing posts from February, 2025

Alien Communication: A Micro-Rant

 The Drake equation is a (shock horror!) equation that allows one to calculate the probability of aliens in the Milky Way. It was formulated, not by Sir Francis Drake of late sixteenth-century world-circumnavigation fame, but by American astrophysicist and astrobiologist, Frank Donald Drake, in 1961.  According to it, Number of civilisations in the Milky Way with whom communication is possible       =           Rate of star formation in Milky Way           ×      Fraction of stars with planets           ×      Avg number of planets capable of supported life per star-with-planet           ×      Fraction of planets capable of life that actually develop life           ×      Fraction of planets with life that develop intelligent life i.e., civili...