Dr. Frank Drake passed away last Friday and he’s pretty famous to me and to many in Astronomy circles, namely for his equation that postulates the possibility of life on other planets in our galaxy.
Translated into English or layman’s terms, N represents the number of other civilizations presently (or maybe ever) in the Milky Way. It’s equal to these factors, how many stars are present, how many stars are on par with ours (G2 V), how many planets have planets in the Goldilocks zone, how many have water, how many have life, how many lead to life leading to intelligence and then lastly, what’s the chance of self destruction. OK, I may not have it to the letter but in general, it’s a pretty good start. These days, we have a solid idea on the stars and every year, we are discovering more exoplanets to close the gap there. The life and self-destruction variables I’d say are completely arbitrary since we lack examples to compare. I once say an interview of him on Netflix or something say he thinks the current answer is 10,000 probable civilizations spread out in the galaxy.
Dr. Drake did much more than an equation, he was involved with organizing SETI, found Jupiter’s radiation belt and proved that Venus’ atmosphere was thick like our oceans. Most importantly, he was instrumental (no pun intended) in getting the Voyager probes their golden records which contain sounds and pictures of Earth and us Humans.
Thanks for everything Dr. Drake! I’m really bummed about the numerous, short-sighted, politicians who lacked your vision on searching harder to for life elsewhere. Still, you got us further along than where we started and may something pan out at Tau Ceti or Epsilon Eridani.