Astrobiology’s most famous formula

Rockets conquered heights, the first artificial satellites appeared, and then the nearest planets were reached. In those post-war years, mysterious news about flying saucers arrived from many parts of the world.

Finally, the time has come for scientists to once again dedicate themselves to the search for extraterrestrials.

Maybe someone is watching us from that endless blackness sprinkled with stars above us. We believe that the universe is inhabited, only the alien worlds are very far from each other and the contacts between them are complicated.

That’s why everyone copes, as best they can, with their destiny. Some worlds are certainly happy, some are not. But everyone looks at their own sky to see if they can find a signal of reason there. Maybe some persistently send us greeting messages. Or maybe a desperate plea for help.

In any case, we believe that intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations crave contact. And surely they are sending us signs, we just need to receive them. In the second half of the last century, astronomers realized that radio telescopes are an excellent means of intergalactic communication.

So, the Earth began to listen to the universe.

It was in 1960. That year, Jacques Picard and Don Walsh touched the deepest bottom of the planet with a bathyscaphe, CERN started working, France tested its first atomic bomb, the movie Ben Hur won eleven Oscars.

Frank Drake (1930-2022), an American astrophysicist, focused his knowledge and skills on finding intelligent extraterrestrial beings. He was barely eight years old when he thought about the existence of life on other planets.

Drake’s program for the search for an intelligent signal from space was given a cute name: Ozma – after the princess from the children’s novel The Wizard of Oz.

For four months, Drake listened to the region of the sun-like stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani because he expected there to be planets with advanced life in their vicinity. But even after four months, he didn’t reveal anything. His radio telescope recorded only the monotonous, lifeless noise of space.

However, that was only the beginning and the following year, with great enthusiasm, Drake organized a meeting of scientists and businessmen who were interested in the subject of extraterrestrial life. There were astronomers, physicists, biologists, sociologists and so on – the group is known today as the Order of the Dolphin.

That meeting was historic for astrobiology. On it, Frank Drake presented the equation that today bears his name and is one of the most famous in the history of our civilization. Its result should lead us to the number of intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way.

N = R ∗ × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L

N – the number of civilizations in our galaxy that are capable of communication

R* – the number of stars that form in one year in our galaxy

no – the average number of planets suitable for the development of life and stars that have planets

fi – the probability that intelligence will develop from life

L – the average lifespan of a technological civilization

etc.

To date, the formula has appeared in countless books, professional papers, TV shows, posters, presentations, etc. It is certainly the result of deep thinking and understanding of life in general. All essential conditions for life are concentrated in it, and that is why it is so big. It contains not only the physical conditions necessary for life, but also the sociological ones.