Space

Space - Intelligent Life?

The Drake Equation (Frank Drake, 1961) takes in the factors which might determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy.
Enter your estimates below and calculate!
N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL
N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy
        Current estimates are 100-200 billion.

fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them
        Current estimates range from 20% to 50%.

ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life
Current estimates range from 1 to 5.

fl is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves
Current estimates range from 100% (where life can evolve it will) down to close to 0%.

fi is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves
         Estimates range from 100% down to near 0%.

fc is the fraction of fi that communicate
         Estimates are 10-20%

fL is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live
The expected lifetime of our Sun and the Earth is roughly 10 billion years. So far we've been communicating with radio waves for less than 100 years. How long will our civilization survive? If we were destroyed tomorrow the answer to this question would be 1/100,000,000th. If we survive for 10,000 years the answer will be 1/1,000,000th.

When all of these variables are multiplied together we come up with:

N, the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

After you've chosen all your answers below - press the calculate button

N* = the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy:

fp = fraction of stars with planets around them:

ne = number of planets per star ecologically able to sustain life:

fl = fraction of those planets where life actually evolves:

fi = the fraction of fl that evolves intelligent life:

fc = the fraction of fi that communicates:

fL = the fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations survives:

N = the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy =

We are listening to the Universe... to hear sounds in space, click the link.

http://www.spacesounds.com/navigator/index.html

IMAGES -Click on the thumbnails

COOL FACTS

Sound travels at 769 miles per second

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second

A light-year (the distance light travels in one year) is 5,865,696,000,000 - almost 6 trillion miles

The Milky Way Galaxy is about 150,000 light-years across

The distance from Earth to our Sun is about 94 million miles (8 light minutes )

The next closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, is about 24 trillion miles (4.22 ly) away.

The universe and our galaxy is approximately 15 billion years old. Our Solar System is about 4.5 billion years old

The sun has "burned" for more than 4.5 billion years. The Sun will become a red giant in about five billion years.

Homo sapiens appeared on earth about 100,000 years ago.

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