The existence of other forms of life has always fascinated us, but nowadays we have no scientific confirmation of this, so for now we can only speculate.
In 1961, astrophysicist Frank Drake, during a conference called by the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, presented to the scientific community a mathematical formula, later called the Drake equation.
The scientist Drake with his equation tried to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations present in our galaxy and able to make contact with the Earth:
It is a probabilistic calculation based on 7 factors that represent the conditions by which intelligent life forms could develop: R* represents the number of stars that are born each year in our galaxy (Milky Way), fp indicates the fraction of stars around which planets orbit, ne indicates the number of planets in orbit around each star that are able to host life, fl indicates the fraction of the planets on which life has evolved, fi is the fraction of habitable planets where life has evolved to become intelligent life, fc is the fraction of planets with intelligent life where interstellar communication has been achieved, L indicates how long an intelligent civilization has communicated.
Multiplying all the factors you should get the number of civilizations in our galaxy able to communicate with us, but all the factors that appear in the equation of drake today are unknown, we can make conjectures, But we can’t determine an exact estimate, so with this equation, we can’t determine the exact number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy that can communicate with
with our planet.
SETI ( Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is a research project based on the idea that technologically advanced alien civilizations can be discovered by intercepting their radio signals, so far nothing has been picked up, but SETI researchers do not give up, the alien search is still open!
Mariacarla Frippa
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